“The Officers of the Ministry of Justice Decided to Refuse the Persuasion to Go Easy with Hong-up from Cheong Wa Dae”

In relation to the suspicion that Cheong Wa Dae persuaded the Justice Minister to go easy with the vice president of the Asia Pacific Peace Foundation, Kim, Hong-Up, during the process of the prosecutor investigation by mentioning the investigation command, it was known to public on the 9th that the Ministry of Justice had an unofficial officers’ meeting and decided to refuse the exercise of the investigation command.

According to the officers of the Ministry of Justice, the then Justice Minister Song, Jung-Ho was asked to stop the investigation by exercising the investigation command to the Attorney General by a person from Cheong Wa Dae, and around same time, the officers’ meeting decided to refuse that.

The officers of the Ministry of Justice used an example that the whole Cabinet resigned in Japan in 1954 because the Justice Minister of Japan exercised the investigation command to the Attorney General to stop the investigation of so called ‘ship building suspicion scandal.’

Meanwhile, an officer of the Ministry of Justice said, “I cannot acknowledge that officially” in response to the suspicion of the request of Blue House to stop the investigation.

However another person actually acknowledged that saying, “I cannot affirm that it is not true.”

It was known that a person from Cheong Wa Dae called the Justice Minister Song and asked to go easy with Hong-up, saying, “Isn’t it too harsh to put two sons of the President under restraint.”

The Minister Song hesitated on that and the person from Cheong Wa Dae complained saying, “What are you going to do with your investigation command.”

However Cheong Wa Dae denied again saying, “It is not true that we asked to go easy with the investigation against Hong-Up or press anyone to do that.”

Wi-Yong Jung viyonz@donga.com