Unstoppable desire to stay in power
SHIM SAE-ROMThe author is a communications team reporter of the JoongAng Holdings.
Political circles are paying keen attention to the possibility of former senior presidential secretaries for civil affairs to run for a legislative seat in next year’s parliamentary elections. The two secretaries are Cho Kuk — who served former liberal President Moon Jae-in — and Woo Byung-woo, who was referred to as “king secretary” during the conservative Park Geun-hye administration.
Both were noted as favorites of the past administration. Although it is now abolished, the position of senior presidential secretary for civil affairs dealt with punishing enemies of the president with the authority entrusted by the president. Cho and Woo were “the big shots of the big shots” while working in the Blue House. They both had a prestigious academic background of studying law at Seoul National University — and wealth. When public officials disclosed their assets, Cho was known to have 2 billion won ($1.6 million) in cash in 2017, while Woo was indisputably the richest public servant with the asset worth 39.3 billion won in 2016.
Both men similarly had fallen from the peak of power to the abyss. Though they had been in charge of inspection, they became a suspect and defendant later. In the process of moving to the post of justice minister, Cho was sentenced to prison in the first trial and dismissed from his position as a professor at Seoul National University Law School due to irregularities with his children for their college admissions and the private equity funds scandal. His wife is in prison and her daughter has filed a lawsuit against the cancellation of her admission to a medical school.
Woo also served a year in jail after being singled out as the key figure in the Park Geun-hye administration’s manipulation of state affairs. The Supreme Court found him guilty of illegal inspection through the National Intelligence Service, abuse of power and obstruction of justice.
The two ex-secretaries seem to consider running in the parliamentary elections scheduled for next April for their revival rather than taking a “quiet retreat” from the political stage.
Woo said in an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo on June 9, “As I’ve been in public office all my life, I’m thinking a lot about what I can do for the country.” Meanwhile, Cho wrote on Facebook on June 10, “I am thinking about what I should do in the times of regression and retrogression when everything from the Moon Jae-in administration is being denied.”
Although they are making excuses about their career or the current state of the nation, their true purposes may be clearing their victimhood from political investigations. Woo said, “There were few cases of punishment for abuse of authority in the past.” Cho said that his family went through the infernal trial because of himself.
While they are free to run in the election, they must not forget that many people suffered from the brutal investigations they led. Both the governing People Power Party and the Democratic Party are already perplexed at the signs of their returns.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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