Prosecutors Indict Choi Kang-wook, Blue House Public Service Discipline Secretary, 'Without Detention' One Hour After Personnel Appointment

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The prosecution has indicted Choi Kang-wook, the Blue House Secretary for Public Office Discipline, who is known to have falsified an internship confirmation letter for the son of former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk. This came just one hour after the Ministry of Justice announced a mid-level prosecutor personnel reshuffle.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 2 (Chief Prosecutor Ko Hyung-gon) announced on the 23rd at 11 a.m. that they had indicted Secretary Choi without detention on charges of obstruction of business.

Secretary Choi, who worked as a lawyer at the law firm Cheongmaek, issued a false internship confirmation letter in October 2017 for Cho's son, Cho Mo (24). It was found that he wrote a confirmation letter stating that Cho's son interned at his law firm office from January to October 2017, assisting with document organization and English translation tasks, and also stamped it with the seal of the 'supervising lawyer.'

Cho submitted this internship confirmation letter to graduate schools at Korea University and Yonsei University and was admitted to both. The prosecution considers the internship details to be false and applied charges of obstructing the affairs of each university. Regarding this suspicion, Secretary Choi received three summonses from the prosecution since last month but responded only with written statements and did not comply with the appearance requests. When the prosecution indicted former Minister Cho last month on charges of obstruction of business, they also detailed the circumstances of Secretary Choi’s issuance of the internship confirmation letter in the indictment.

Meanwhile, prior to Secretary Choi’s indictment, the Ministry of Justice announced a mid-level prosecutor personnel reshuffle around 10 a.m. on the same day. Ko Hyung-gon, head of the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 2, which indicted Secretary Choi, was appointed as head of the Daegu District Prosecutors' Office Anti-Corruption Investigation Division.