Pres. Park blames 20-year aide for her own fault

Appearing at a court hearing on Choi Soon-sil behind the Choi Soon-sil gate at the Seoul Central District Court on Monday, Goh Young-tae, former director of The Blue K, claimed, “The Blue K’s actual operator (owner) is Choi Soon-sil.” The Blue K is a consulting firm founded by Choi herself to smoothly funnel the 28.8 billion won (25.3 million U.S. dollars) in funds from the K Sports Foundation, which were collected from conglomerates. While Choi had claimed that Goh was the practical operator and she only supported him, but Goh said, “If it were my company, how on earth could I have been fired (by Choi).” In light of this, President Park Geun-hye’s argument that “Choi is just my 40-year friend and a homemaker” is hardly convincing.

On the reason he quit the boutique shop run by Choi, Goh testified, “I saw Choi told Cha Eun-taik to recommend figures for posts of a minister and the Korea Creative Content Agency chief, and that appointments were actually made as recommended, and Choi started setting some kinds of budget and the suggested budgets be actually reflected (in state budget), and got scared.” On Choi’s intervention in state affairs, President Park claimed that Choi only recommended figures in the culture field, and that not all the recommendations were reflected either. The investigation by the independent council has revealed that Choi intervened in personnel affairs not only in the culture field but also far-reaching areas including the government and state-run companies. Park’s excuse that Choi did not meddle with personnel affairs or budgetary issues at all is incompatible with Goh’s testimonies as well.

In a 13-page document that President Park submitted to the Constitutional Court in connection with her impeachment trial on Friday last week, Park completely denied not only 13 causes of her impeachment cited but also the findings from investigations by state prosecutors and the independent counsel team that have lasted for four months, saying, “No” or “I was not aware.” Is she saying that a total of 22 people, who have been indicted until recently by the prosecutors and the independent counsel including 18 who have been arrested, have been charged due to false charges? If Park is confident in her innocence, she should not reject a search and seizure by special investigators, and instead should collect materials at her office to prove her innocence by herself.

On various classified documents from the presidential office, President Park stressed that she did not comprehensively delegate her authority to Secretary Chung to hand over materials other than speeches and statements to Choi Seo-won (Choi Soon-sil before changing her name). Park seems to effectively suggest that the leaks of classified state documents from her office were a problem that were generated due to Chung’s "excessive loyalty," and which the president herself has nothing to do with. It is truly uncomfortable to see Park try to blame her aide, who had been assisting her for nearly 20 years, for her own fault, or to guard against corruptions committed by his confidants that have been revealed already. The most important of all the virtues required by a chief executive is honesty, which is the very foundation for the public’s trust in the leader.