My Entire Contact with Prosecutor Park Cheol-woo Was Running Into Him Two or Three Times
Cho Kuk, head of the Rebuilding Korea Party's Innovation Policy Research Institute, on the 20th squarely rebutted as an "absurd lie" the claim by independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon that Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Chief Park Cheol-woo was "my closest aide prosecutor." A day earlier, on the 19th, Han wrote on Facebook that "Chief Prosecutor Park Cheol-woo was a closest-aid prosecutor who closely served former Justice Ministers Cho Kuk and Choo Mi-ae." He also claimed that the Democratic Party was using Chief Prosecutor Park during parliamentary audits to carry out a "matador" (in baseball, a pitcher who deliberately hits a batter — that is, an attack aimed at someone) and political revenge against him.
Clarifying on his own Facebook page, Cho said, "Prosecutor Park served as Justice Ministry spokesman after I stepped down as minister," adding, "I only crossed paths with him two or three times at the National Assembly when he was seconded there as a professional associate on the Legislation and Judiciary Committee." He emphasized, "We have never even shared a meal."
Chief Prosecutor Park had made a string of remarks unfavorable to Han at the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee's audit of the Seoul Metropolitan Prosecutors' Office on the 19th. Regarding the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office's failure to forward the police's mutual legal assistance request to the Justice Ministry during the investigation into allegations that Han's daughter violated copyright law, he said, "Given established work patterns, that would not be usual." Responding to Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Dong-ah's criticism that "the prosecution tore into Cho Kuk with its investigation but never investigated the college admissions fraud case involving Han Dong-hoon's daughter at all," Park said, "I think there are parts that are considerably difficult to sympathize with from the standpoint of the public's legal sensibilities and eye level."
The circumstances surrounding the mutual legal assistance request have also been confirmed. On November 21, 2022, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency requested that the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office file an application for international mutual legal assistance to secure evidence in the United States related to allegations that Han's daughter violated copyright law, but on December 2 of that year, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office decided not to forward the request to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and the Justice Ministry. Police later closed the case without indictment in December 2023, ruling no charges against Han's daughter and others.
Cho claimed, "Unlike during my time as justice minister, pro-Yoon and pro-Han political prosecutors and police officers who watch their superiors' moods are probably not going to protect him, so he must be very anxious and restless," adding, "He is lashing out recklessly, even furiously attacking a perfectly sound senior official of his own former 'home' [the prosecution]."
