Maid says she fed Chae, love child

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Maid says she fed Chae, love child

The love-child scandal around former Prosecutor-General Chae Dong-wook took another twist Monday when a former housemaid of Chae’s alleged mistress said the former top prosecutor was definitely the father of the 11-year old boy at the center of the story - and that she used to cook meals for them to enjoy together.

In an interview with the 61-year-old former housemaid aired by TV Chosun, she claimed Chae frequently visited the mistress’s house and acted as a father figure to the 11-year-old boy.

The interview was aired just hours after Chae formally stepped down from his post and dropped a lawsuit demanding a retraction from the Chosun Ilbo, which broke the love-child story on Sept. 6.

The former maid, who is surnamed Lee, said she worked at the mistress’s house from March 2003 through the fall in 2007.

She said she cooked dishes for him when he visited the house to see his son, and isn’t confusing him with someone else because she recognized him from television reports about legal cases at the time.

Lee also said she agreed to do the interview because she was upset with the 11-year-old boy’s mother, whom she said borrowed 65 million won ($60,300) from her and never paid it back.

Lee said she was threatened by the mother to keep silent about the relationship between Chae and her family in May, when Chae took over the prosecution.

Through his lawyer, Chae refuted Lee’s claims and said she must have confused him with another man. He repeated that he wanted DNA tests for both himself and the boy in question, and said he would renew his legal action against the Chosun Ilbo once the DNA tests are complete.

At the National Assembly, after the Monday convening of the first regular session since the inauguration of the Park Geun-hye government, the ruling and opposition parties clashed over the Chae scandal.

The Democratic Party has suspected the Blue House leaked word of Chae’s alleged love child to the Chosun Ilbo because it was disgruntled over the prosecution’s aggressive investigation into the National Intelligence Service’s alleged meddling in last year’s presidential election.

Yesterday, the DP’s Shin Kyoung-min claimed that Kwak Sang-do, former senior secretary of the Blue House’s office of civil affairs, met the Chosun Ilbo’s chief editor in August and told him Chae will soon be forced out.

The Saenuri Party countered those comments by saying Chae’s case was a matter of ethical standards of a high-ranking public servant.

“Why has the Saenuri Party been interested in revealing the truth about the boy’s father?” said Saenuri member Kim Jin-tae, a former prosecutor.

“Because that question is related to the ethical standards of a man who led the country’s top investigative office.”


BY KANG JIN-KYU [jkkang2@joongang.co.kr]
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