Refer Report

Today (9.3) we looked at the prosecution’s investigation into bribery charges against former President Moon Jae-in.

① Discovery of differences: Prosecutors investigate former President Moon for bribery
② Look, click!
– It’s hot until Chuseok
– Outdoor library in Gwanghwamun and Cheonggyecheon
– Ramen story
– Household loans at an all-time high
– A bird hits a window every 3.9 seconds
③ Now and Then: WHITE (White, 1994)

① Discovery of differences

# Prosecutors investigate former President Moon for bribery
– It has been reported that the prosecution is investigating former President Moon Jae-in on charges of bribery in relation to the suspicion of preferential hiring at Thai Star Jet of Mr. Seo (44), former President Moon Jae-in’s son-in-law.

– The Jeonju District Prosecutors’ Office’s 3rd Criminal Division (Chief Prosecutor Han Yeon-gyu), which is investigating this case, is considering applying the ‘direct bribery crime’ instead of the ‘third-party bribery crime’, as former President Moon, who supported his daughter and daughter-in-law’s living expenses by hiring his former son-in-law, Seo, at Thai Star Jet, ended up gaining economic benefits.

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1. Is there anything illegal about the employment of Lee Sang-jik, the CEO of Medium and Small Business?
– In chronological order, the appointment of former lawmaker Lee Sang-jik to the position of Chairman of the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KSMEs) came first. It was in March 2018.

– At the time, former lawmaker Lee Sang-jik had already served as a Democratic Party member of the 19th National Assembly (2012-2016) and had a successful history as a businessman, so he was initially nominated for the position of Minister of SMEs and Startups in 2017. However, it is known that he was disqualified at the time due to his previous record of being fined for stock manipulation in 2002.

– Then, in March 2018, the Korea Development Institute’s Executive Recommendation Committee recommended three final candidates, including former lawmaker Lee Sang-jik, to the Blue House in January of that year to fill the vacant position of the Korea Development Institute Chairman due to the expiration of the predecessor’s term. However, only former lawmaker Lee passed the final screening.

– In order to apply the charge of ‘bribery’ to former President Moon Jae-in in relation to this appointment as the prosecution claims, there must be illegality in the appointment process. Furthermore, if it is a ‘bribe,’ there must have been a request to ‘get my son-in-law employed at your company later’ in return for the appointment of the chairman of the Korea Development Bank. Even if such a thing happened, it would be difficult to prove, but it is hard to understand from a common sense perspective that former President Moon requested a job for his son-in-law in advance when appointing the chairman of the Korea Development Bank.

– There may be a question about whether the appointment of former lawmaker Lee Sang-jik was appropriate. However, this is a matter of personnel judgment. Former lawmaker Lee Sang-jik’s corruption suspicions began to surface in 2020. That is why the Blue House officials at the time claimed that his appointment was not that strange at the time of his appointment. As a result, it is hard to say that the appointment of former lawmaker Lee Sang-jik, whose corruption allegations were later revealed, was a good thing. However, wasn’t the appointment of Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol the most wrong personnel judgment by former President Moon?

2. How did Mr. Seo get a job?
– It is true that this part is the most questionable.

– Mr. Seo married President Moon’s daughter Da-hye (41) in 2010 and divorced in 2021. He comes from the securities and gaming industries and worked at a gaming company until March 2018.

– Then, from July 2018 to early 2020, he worked as an executive director at Thai Star Jet. It is questionable how he got a job without any airline experience. It is not necessary to have airline experience to get a job at an airline. If you are not a pilot, related work may be more important. However, it is not so strange to suspect that Seo’s status as the “president’s son-in-law” played a role in his employment process.

– However, in order for former President Moon to be a suspect here, there must be former President Moon’s involvement in his son-in-law’s employment process. Even if Mr. Seo’s employment was not appropriate, if the process occurred in the relationship between former Chairman Lee Sang-jik and Mr. Seo without former President Moon’s direct involvement, it is not possible to hold former President Moon legally responsible rather than morally.

3. Is the son-in-law’s salary a bribe to former President Moon?
– This is the most incomprehensible part.

– Former President Moon and his wife had been paying part of their daughter and her husband’s living expenses, but since Ms. Seo got a job, they no longer had to provide living expenses support, so the salary she received was ultimately a bribe given to President Moon.

– The total amount of bribes, including the monthly salary (approximately 8 million won) and living expenses in Thailand (approximately 3.5 million won) received by Seo while working at Thai Star Jet, was determined to be approximately 223 million won, and the house of his daughter Da-hye was searched and seized to investigate this.

– However, son-in-law Seo was working at a gaming company until March 2018. It is not known exactly when and how much the former President Moon and his wife provided living expenses to Seo and his wife. However, since the daughter and her husband’s living expenses support was no longer provided due to the son-in-law’s employment, is it common sense to say that the son-in-law’s salary was a bribe received by the father-in-law?

4. Are the son-in-law and father-in-law an economic community?
– The general assessment in the legal community is that the reason the Jeonju District Prosecutors’ Office’s 3rd Criminal Division (Chief Prosecutor Han Yeon-gyu) is considering applying the charge of ‘general bribery’ rather than ‘third-party bribery’ to former President Moon is because it is more difficult to prove the charge of ‘third-party bribery’.

– Bribery only requires proof of ‘job-relatedness’ and ‘compensation’, but third-party bribery requires proof of ‘illegal request’ in addition. Therefore, the fact that the prosecution is considering applying the ‘direct bribery’ crime rather than the ‘third-party bribery’ crime can be presumed to be because the prosecution failed to find out whether former President Moon ‘requested’ anything during the son-in-law’s employment process. Then, some say they are trying to change course and tie the son-in-law and father-in-law together as a single economic community. The money the son-in-law received is ultimately the father-in-law’s money.

– But the son-in-law didn’t just receive a 3 million won luxury handbag. He received a salary. In order for this salary to be considered a bribe, the employment must have been illegal.

– In February of last year, the court found Kwak Sang-do, former senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, not guilty in the first trial of the bribery case in which his son received 5 billion won in retirement pay and bonuses from Hwacheon Daeyu. At the time, the court stated, “There are circumstances that raise suspicions that former senior secretary Kwak received the bribe by using his son as his agent,” but “It has not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the profits received by Kwak’s son, who was married and living independently, can be evaluated as those received by Kwak himself.”

– Which one is more likely to be considered a ‘bribe’ between the 5 billion won that the 31-year-old ordinary employee, former senior executive Kwak’s son, received as a retirement pay and the 200 million won that his 40-year-old son-in-law, Mr. Seo, received as a salary for two years while working as an executive?

5. Why are prosecutorial investigations always unfair?
– Even if it is a former president, if there is illegal activity, it should be investigated. However, as was clearly revealed during the investigation of Ms. Kim Kun-hee, the prosecution’s investigations are always extremely different in terms of the level of investigation depending on the target. It seems that they are not even aware of the public’s eyes.

– If we follow the prosecution’s logic, wouldn’t the 3 million won luxury bag that Ms. Kim Kun-hee received be an economic benefit to her husband, President Yoon Seok-yeol, who is part of the economic community?

– As always, the prosecution takes a thorough and low-level approach to investigating the side that is not their side. This time, they searched and seized the house of the ex-wife in order to investigate the suspicion of preferential employment of her ex-husband, whom she divorced three years ago, and even took the elementary school son’s iPad as a search and seizure item, claiming that it had Da-hye’s email account.

– In comparison, how did the prosecution investigate Ms. Kim Gun-hee?

6. Why now?
– From here on out, it is a speculative assessment of the political world.

– There is a suspicion that the prosecution is bringing the 2018 situation to the surface now because of the crisis facing the Yoon Seok-yeol administration.

– So, the political world is also expecting something tangible, such as the summons and investigation of former President Moon before Chuseok. There have been voices within the ruling party concerned about the repeated decline in President Yoon’s approval rating, especially the spread and entrenchment of such movements ahead of Chuseok. The idea is to turn attention to the investigation of former President Moon. The public’s opinions will be divided on this, but in any case, it will be possible to consolidate the support base.

– People have a tendency to think and act based on what they are good at and what they have done before.

– If there is an illegal fact about former President Moon, the former president cannot be a sanctuary. However, regardless of the court ruling later, if the public is given the impression that political objectives will be achieved in the current investigation and prosecution phase, will that political objective be achieved? Of course, the prosecution says, “There is no political objective at all.”

– This happened in 2018, and the investigation has been ongoing since the current administration came to power, but there was no significant progress until late last year when Prosecutor General Lee Chang-soo, a close friend of Yoon, took office as the Jeonju District Prosecutor. Then, Prosecutor General Lee Chang-soo was promoted to the Seoul District Prosecutor, passed over the Prosecutor General, returned his cell phone, conducted an on-site investigation of Ms. Kim Gun-hee, and concluded that she was not guilty.

7. Press Report (Editorial Title)
Hankyoreh = While the ‘Kim Gun-hee incident’ is being covered up, another ‘investigation of the former administration’ is underway. Aren’t you embarrassed?
tendency = Former President Moon Jae-in says ‘son-in-law’s salary is a bribe’ Forced investigation
korea = In the end, former President Moon was also investigated without controversy Must be fast and fair
center = ‘Suspect Moon Jae-in’ written… Prosecution, Fair and principled investigation I hope so
shipbuilding = ‘Moon family corruption’ If you want to cover it up, look at the verdict of the ‘Park Economic Community’

– This is the title of the editorial on Monday, September 2nd. As you can see from the title, Hankyoreh and Kyunghyang are criticizing the unfairness and irrationality of the prosecution’s investigation, Hankook Ilbo and JoongAng Ilbo are calling for a ‘fair investigation’, and Chosun Ilbo is defining it as ‘former President Moon Jae-in’s family corruption’.

② Look, click!

# It’s hot until Chuseok

## Outdoor library in Gwanghwamun and Cheonggyecheon

### Ramen Story

#### Household loans at an all-time high

##### A bird hits a window every 3.9 seconds

③ Now and Then

The most common assessment of President Yoon Seok-yeol’s state briefing last Thursday was, “It’s like living in a different country.” This is because statements such as “the economy is stabilizing,” “there are no problems with the relationship between the ruling and opposition parties,” and “go to the emergency room yourself, it’s running smoothly without any problems” were so far removed from the perceptions and lives of the general public.

And yesterday, he did not attend the National Assembly opening ceremony. An official from the presidential office said, “In a situation where people can’t help but suspect that he will call the president and picket and humiliate him, how can he really attend?” It’s an excuse. Even if that’s true, as the president, it’s right to attend a place where the people’s representatives are present and listen to things he doesn’t like, but it seems like he’s trying to show that he’s angry. Some say that he did it not because he didn’t want to meet the opposition party, but rather the ruling party leader (Han Dong-hoon).

President Yoon said in his state briefing that he would “definitely achieve” the four major reforms of pension, healthcare, education, and labor. There are some parts of his direction that I find difficult to agree with, but most of these are issues that require the passage of bills. I don’t know what he is saying and how he intends to achieve them while ignoring the National Assembly.

Today’s song is ‘WHITE’ (1994) by the group White formed by Yoo Young-seok. It depicts a fairy tale land.

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Reporter Kwon Tae-ho ho@hani.co.kr

Source: Korean