'Cho Kuk's Aide' Former Ministry of Justice Policy Advisor Moves to Blue House... Assigned to Protocol Secretary Office

Seunghee Koo, Blue House Administrator (Former Policy Advisor to the Minister of Justice)

[Asia Economy Reporter Son Sun-hee] It has been confirmed that a close aide who supported former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk during the time he was under investigation by the prosecution after his resignation last year has recently joined the Blue House.

According to multiple ruling party officials on the 1st, Gu Seung-hee, former policy secretary to the Minister of Justice (49), known as an aide to former Minister Cho, has been employed and working as an administrative officer (Grade 3) in the Protocol Secretary’s Office at the Blue House since early last month. The Protocol Secretary’s Office is responsible for planning President Moon Jae-in’s schedule and protocol.

Gu, the administrative officer, is known to have personally driven former Minister Cho in his own vehicle when Cho visited Seoul Detention Center around November last year to meet his wife, Professor Jung Kyung-shim of Dongyang University, who was detained on charges related to private equity funds and admission fraud.

Gu, who previously served as a parliamentary aide, worked on candidate scheduling during the 2012 presidential election at the Moon Jae-in campaign and was also active in the campaign during the 19th presidential election. He is also the husband of former administrative officer Kim Seon, who was in charge of social network services (SNS) at the Blue House Digital Communication Center and retired last year.

This is not the first case of a close aide to former Minister Cho entering the Blue House. Earlier this year, President Moon appointed lawyer Kim Mi-kyung, considered one of Cho’s closest aides, as the Secretary for Balanced Personnel Affairs at the Blue House. Kim, who had been working as a senior administrative officer in the Blue House Legal Secretary’s Office, resigned to assist Cho when he was nominated as Minister of Justice and joined the personnel hearing preparation team. After Cho’s appointment, she was named a policy secretary but became a private citizen following Cho’s resignation. She was then unusually promoted and reappointed as a secretary at the Blue House earlier this year.

At the New Year press conference in January, President Moon mentioned former Minister Cho, saying, "I owe him a great debt of gratitude from the bottom of my heart."