Cho Kuk's camp rebuts criticism head-on with photo of Han Dong-hoon bowing at 90 degrees
Cho Kuk, head of the Rebuilding Korea Party's Innovation Policy Research Institute, on Wednesday posted on Facebook a photo of independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon bowing at a 90-degree angle to former President Yoon Suk-yeol two years ago, when Han was emergency committee chairman of the People Power Party, directly rebutting the lawmaker's claim that Prosecutors' Office chief Park Cheol-woo had been a "closest aide" to Cho. Posting the image, taken at the scene of a fire at the Seocheon specialty market in Seocheon County, South Chungcheong Province, on January 23, 2024, Cho wrote: "If someone is truly a 'closest aide,' they should bow the way Han Dong-hoon does to Yoon Suk-yeol in this photo." The post was a counterattack after Han doubled down on his claim that Park, chief of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, had served as a close-aide prosecutor in proximity support (a role directly assisting the minister at their side) when Cho was justice minister, and released photos of the two of them together.
Political conflict underlay the photo at the time. The presidential office had expressed displeasure with Han over issues involving former first lady Kim Keon-hee and candidate management, demanding his resignation as the party's emergency committee chief. Two days after the resignation demand, Han visited the fire scene with former President Yoon, where he was photographed bowing at nearly a 90-degree angle.
"Let me say it again: I have never even shared a meal with (Chief Prosecutor Park)," Cho countered. "Prosecutors dispatched to the National Assembly as expert advisers serve as guides when the justice minister or prosecutor general visits the Assembly," he explained, adding, "Prosecutor Park merely escorted me to relevant spaces inside the National Assembly." Park had been dispatched to the National Assembly as a senior prosecutor at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in September 2019, when Cho took office as justice minister.
Cho also released five photos taken on August 8, 2019, showing Chief Prosecutor Park together with Yoon, who was then prosecutor general. "These are the photos that appeared in the media on the day Yoon visited the National Assembly to pay his inaugural courtesy call after becoming prosecutor general," Cho said. "Prosecutor Park Cheol-woo is right there next to Yoon. So does that make Park a 'closest aide who provided proximity support to Yoon Suk-yeol'?" He added: "Yoon once praised Han Dong-hoon, saying he 'plays the media better than I do.' It seems a leopard can't change its spots."
The exchange began with Chief Prosecutor Park's remarks at a parliamentary audit. At a National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee audit of metropolitan prosecutors' offices on Friday, Park said of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office's failure to forward a police request for international judicial cooperation in the investigation of allegations that Han's daughter violated copyright law: "Given existing work practices, not transmitting it was not typical." That same day, Han claimed: "During Cho Kuk's tenure as justice minister, Chief Prosecutor Park was a 'closest-aide prosecutor who provided proximity support to Mr. Cho,'" adding, "The Democratic Party is putting forward 'archly pro-Democratic Party prosecutor Park Cheol-woo' at the committee audit to act as a matador against me and pursue political revenge."
Cho immediately rebutted the claim as "an absurd lie," saying he had only run into Park two or three times at the National Assembly. In response, Han released several photos of Cho and Park together at the Assembly, saying, "The public will judge who is lying." Cho, for his part, urged Han again on Wednesday: "If he has any sense of propriety, he should apologize to Chief Prosecutor Park."
