Ex-justice minister vows to summon president, strike back if elected

Cho Kuk, chief of the Korea Innovation Party, speaks at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

The chief of a minor party that could upend the general election vowed to summon President Yoon Suk Yeol before the National Assembly to respond to allegations that the state prosecution service under his watch illegally stored criminal suspects' personal information.

Speaking on a local radio show on Tuesday, Cho Kuk — a former justice minister who now heads the Korea Innovation Party — said that he plans to “summon everyone, including all former and current prosecutors general” who were involved in the running of the state prosecution service’s work management system, which he alleged was used to keep and peruse data gathered from phones confiscated from people under investigation.

“We need to find out exactly how much information was taken and for what purpose,” he argued, adding that the allegations of illegal information gathering, if confirmed, would be grounds for impeaching prosecutors.

Cho, whose party is aiming to win at least 10 out of the 46 seats in the National Assembly that are selected by party-list proportional representation voting, said he “certainly” plans to summon Yoon, who served as prosecutor general from 2019 to 2021 under then-President Moon Jae-in, for questioning if he is elected as a lawmaker.

The Korea Innovation Party and the liberal Democratic Party’s (DP) satellite party, the Democratic Alliance, announced the previous day that they had filed a complaint to the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials alleging illegal misuse of personal information by Yoon and other former and current prosecutors general.

In a public opinion survey of 1,004 adults conducted by polling company Realmeter between March 18 and 22, 27.7 percent of respondents said they planned to vote for Cho’s party in the proportional representation contest.

The People’s Future Party, the main conservative People Power Party’s (PPP) satellite party, garnered 29.8 percent support, while the Democratic Alliance scored 20.1 percent support.

Should Cho’s party win enough seats through proportional representation, it could wield outsized influence in the National Assembly, especially if neither the PPP nor the DP win an outright majority.

In the same survey, 37.1 percent of respondents said they support the PPP, which is aligned with the Yoon administration, while 42.8 percent said they intend to vote for the DP.

Cho’s latest comments and his bid to enter the National Assembly mark a resumption of his long-running political feud with Yoon, whose administration he likened to a “dictatorship run by prosecutors” when he launched the Korea Innovation Party in February.

During Yoon’s tenure as prosecutor general, the state prosecution service launched an investigation into Cho’s family affairs that tarnished his political star.

Cho was forced to step down just over a month after he was appointed justice minister in September 2019 due to public outcry over allegations that he and his wife, then-Dongyang University professor Chung Kyung-sim, helped their son Cho Won and daughter Cho Min falsify their academic achievements for university admissions.

Cho and his supporters argue that prosecutors targeted him and his family because he had vowed to curtail their powers.

In January, the Seoul High Court upheld Cho Kuk’s conviction for abuse of power and obstructing the operations of multiple universities and handed him a two-year suspended prison sentence.

Chung, whose four-year prison sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2022, was released in December last year after serving less than three years.

In her first trial by the Seoul Central District Court on Friday, Cho Min was fined 10 million won ($7,510) for using falsified documents and obstructing universities’ official duties by engaging in admissions fraud.

Ihn Yo-han, campaign director of the People's Future Party, speaks during a meeting at the party's headquarters in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

In a speech in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Tuesday, the People’s Future Party campaign director Ihn Yo-han called on voters to pass judgment on Cho and DP leader Lee Jae-myung in the upcoming election, calling the two men “a grave threat to democracy in both word and action.”

Lee was indicted by prosecutors last year on charges of breach of duty, conflict of interest, corruption, bribery and concealment of criminal proceeds related to his time as mayor of Seongnam and governor of Gyeonggi.

Referring to the controversies surrounding Cho and Lee, Ihn — a naturalized Korean who is also known by his English name John Linton — claimed the two politicians “are trying to cover up their criminal wrongdoings by using their political power” and called on them to “muster the courage to confront their own embarrassing behavior.”

Speaking to reporters afterward, Ihn also said Cho’s party would “likely lose steam” as the election approaches and suggested its current polling support is derived from “people who are just disgruntled about various issues.”

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