Former Minister Cho Kuk to Appear in Court This Week as Defendant for the First Time... Progress in Yu Jae-su 'Inspection Cover-up' Case

Former Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs Baek Won-woo and Former Anti-Corruption Secretary Park Hyung-chul Also Appear

On December 26 last year, former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk entered the courtroom at the Seoul Eastern District Court in Songpa-gu, Seoul, to attend the detention warrant hearing and responded to questions from the press. Photo by Jang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] Former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk, who has been indicted on allegations including family corruption, will appear in court this week for the first time as a defendant.

According to the court on the 3rd, the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 21 (Presiding Judge Kim Mi-ri) will hold the first trial for Cho and others on the 8th.

Cho did not attend the two previous preparatory hearings as defendants are not required to be present, but he must attend the formal trial on the 8th.

At the preparatory hearing held on the 17th of last month, the court decided to proceed with the trial starting with the 'inspection cover-up' case involving former Busan Deputy Mayor Yoo Jae-soo among the various charges against Cho.

Therefore, at the first formal trial on the 8th, Baek Won-woo, former Blue House Civil Affairs Secretary, and Park Hyung-cheol, former Blue House Anti-Corruption Secretary, who were indicted together in connection with the case, are required to attend, whereas Cho’s wife, Professor Jung Kyung-shim of Dongyang University, who was indicted on 'family corruption' charges, is not required to attend.

The 'inspection cover-up' charge against former Deputy Mayor Yoo concerns the 2017 incident where the Blue House Civil Affairs Office’s special inspection team identified serious misconduct during their inspection of Yoo but Cho and others abused their authority to halt the inspection and failed to take follow-up measures.

The court plans to hear the prosecution’s summary of charges and the defendant’s claims in the morning, and in the afternoon, summon former Blue House Special Inspection Team Leader Lee In-geol as a witness for questioning.

The prosecution stated in the indictment that former Secretary Park instructed Lee to prepare a report indicating that Yoo’s misconduct allegations were substantial and that follow-up actions such as investigation were inevitable to prevent the cover-up.

The prosecution believes that Cho, after receiving such a report, ordered the inspection to be stopped, and this order was sequentially passed down from Park to Lee and the special inspection team members.

The indictment also notes that former Special Inspection Team Leader Lee heard from Senior Administrative Officer Cheon Kyung-deuk of the Blue House General Affairs Office that "If the Blue House wants to control the financial sector, someone like Yoo Jae-soo is necessary."

As former Special Inspection Team Leader Lee holds a key position in uncovering the substance of the allegations, a persistent line of questioning from both the prosecution and defense is expected from day one.

Cho’s side has previously rebutted, stating that after the prosecution’s indictment, Cho received reports from former Secretary Park on the inspection results and multiple proposed measures, instructed that appropriate actions corresponding to the corruption be reported to the Financial Services Commission, and that Park did not oppose this at the time.

Meanwhile, the decision on whether to extend the detention period of Professor Jung, Cho’s wife, will be made this week.

The Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 25-2 (Presiding Judges Lim Jeong-yeop, Kwon Seong-su, Kim Seon-hee), which is handling Professor Jung’s case, announced that it will decide on the issuance of an additional detention warrant by 3 p.m. on the 8th.

Professor Jung, who was indicted on November 11 last year, is currently detained until the 10th, and if the court decides not to issue an additional detention warrant, she will be released at midnight on the 11th.

Earlier, the prosecution requested the court to issue an additional detention warrant based on newly added charges including use of undisclosed information, nominee stock trading, and instructing evidence destruction at the indictment stage.

On the other hand, Professor Jung’s defense argues that this constitutes 'separate detention,' which violates the spirit of the constitution.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.