Former justice minister wins damages for illegal snooping

Former Justice Minister Cho Kuk attends a hearing at the Seoul High Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Dec. 18, 2023. [YONHAP]

Former Justice Minister Cho Kuk on Wednesday won 10 million won ($7,570) in damages in a civil lawsuit he brought against the state for illegal surveillance conducted against him under two previous conservative administrations.

Cho, who served briefly as justice minister under the previous Moon Jae-in administration in September 2019, sued the state in June 2021 for surveillance carried out by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) during the presidencies of Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye.

The new damages awarded by Judge Han Sook-hee, who presided over the case at the Seoul Central District Court, mark a drastic decrease from the 50 million won a lower court granted him in October 2022.

Cho originally claimed 200 million won in damages in his court filing.

According to documents disclosed in 2021, the NIS under the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations viewed Cho as a “pro-North Korean” and “leftist” figure and a “wolf” attacking the legitimacy of the South Korean state “wearing the sheepskin of an academic.”

Cho built his reputation as a crusader against growing socioeconomic inequality as a law professor at Seoul National University (SNU).

The documents showed the spy agency carried out “psychological warfare” against Cho and other individuals it deemed ideologically suspect from 2011 to 2016 in an effort to silence their criticism of the government, according to the lower court’s ruling.

Cho’s nomination and brief tenure as justice minister under Moon was marred by controversy and mass protests over allegations that he and his wife, Chung Kyung-sim, abused their influence as academics to give their children an unfair advantage in both undergraduate and graduate medical school admissions.

Chung, a former professor at Dongyang University, was indicted in 2019 on multiple charges, including forging her own university president’s citation and an internship certificate to bolster her daughter’s application to Pusan National University graduate medical school in 2013.

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Chung to four years’ imprisonment for academic fraud, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in January 2022.

Cho himself was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to forfeit 6 million won ($4,706) in February last year after the Seoul Central District Court found him guilty of obstructing the business of multiple universities by pulling strings for his children’s college admissions.

SNU stripped Cho of his professorship four months later, citing his conviction.

Cho has appealed in that case, which is currently under consideration by the Seoul High Court.

His daughter, Cho Min, turned in her medical license after she was stripped of her bachelor’s degree from Korea University and graduate degree in medicine from Pusan National University in light of her parents’ convictions for academic fraud and forgery.

His son, Cho Won, renounced the masters’ degree he received from Yonsei University after the Supreme Court found Democratic Party lawmaker Choe Kang-wook guilty of fabricating an internship certificate for Cho at a law firm where Choe worked

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]