Pres. should explain Choi’s unchecked visits to her office

News reports say that Choi Soon-sil, President Park Geun-hye’s old friend and powerful secretive aide, used the main gate to the presidential office unchecked from the early days after Park’s inauguration until recently. According to the Hankyoreh newspaper, Lee Yeong-seon, a secretary at the secondary secretarial office at the presidential office, drove state-owned car to Choi’s residence or office, took her to the presidential office, and drove her back to her destination when leaving. Lee is the man who was seen cleaning a mobile phone on his shirt before handing it over to Choi, when she was selecting President Park’s attire at a secretive boutique in Seoul’s Gangnam district.

“We don’t know whether a car is carrying (Choi Soon-sil) or not, but when a vehicle registered at the presidential office heads to the main building, the vehicle is not checked at the gate,” Lee Cheol-seong, commissioner general of the National Police Agency, said at the National Assembly on Tuesday, effectively admitting Choi’s unchecked entries into the office. Rumors even suggested that when a security guard checked a vehicle carrying Choi and got into a dispute in early days after Park’s inauguration, the police officer in charge of security was demoted. Since then, a car carrying Choi had not been checked by the security squad.

Even though this was the reality, President Park completely cheated the public including those working at her own office. At a parliamentary government inspection session on Oct. 21, then presidential chief of staff Lee Won-jong flatly denied rumors about Choi’s unchecked visits to the presidential office, saying “I have never seen her or heard of Choi's visits. There is none that I know of.” After suspicions flared up suggesting that Choi’s ex-husband, Chung Yoon-hoi, might have been a powerful secretive aide to President Park on Dec. 7, 2014, the president invited the ruling Saenuri Party’s leadership and said, “Since there is no power elite at the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae, some rumors say that my pet Jindo dog is a power elite.” Who on earth was Choi, and how could she make even the presidential chief of staff a puppet, and have the secondary presidential secretarial office subjected to assist the former First Ladies personally attend her?

Presidential spokesman Chung Yeon-gook criticized the media on Tuesday, saying, “Groundless suspicions have been generating, and even foreign media outlets have picked them without reservation as if they are real.” The one in the wrong (the presidential office) is effectively making false accusations. President Park’s apology suggesting that “I received Choi's assistance mostly with speeches and public relations” has been proven to be a lie. We can hardly fathom the depth of Choi’s manipulation of state affairs, and the president and her office are hiding the truth. Even some psychologists say that the public are "collectively in anger and discontent" because they can never understand the fiasco, but people at the presidential office are only blaming the media.

The Choi Soon-sil gate has happened because the president empowered Choi by allowing the latter to visit the presidential office unchecked. At a meeting with retired veteran politicians, Park reportedly signed out and said, “I hear some reports even say that I am following a religious cult.” If President Park feels that she has been gotten so deeply wrong, we wonder for what the president was taken hostage and so hopelessly controlled by Choi and her father, the late Choi Tae-min, after constantly emphasizing law and principle and patriotism to the nation. The devastating scandal has shocked the entire public, caused despair in them, and even paralyzed state administration. The president should give detailed explanations to enable the public to understand. If she intends to ask even this question to Choi, her remaining term in office will be completely useless and wasteful.

한기흥기자 eligius@donga.com