Lie by Pro-Roh Portal Site President Discovered

Cheong Wa Dae made a public announcement on Monday that its probe had not found any proof of the Culture Minister Chung Dong-chae’s direct involvement in the solicitation of a job appointment.

However, it was discovered that “A” and her husband, Seo Young-seok (president of a political Internet portal site Seoprise) asked Shim Kwang-hyun, head of the School of Film, TV & Multi Media at the Korean National University of Arts and with whom the couple were well acquainted, to employ Seo’s wife early last month. Shim asked Oh Jee-chul, former vice Culture Minister, on June 11 to give Seo’s wife the professorship position.

According to this finding, Seo will be blamed for his moral dishonesty since he had said that he didn’t know anything at all regarding his wife’s job solicitation.

The presidential office said, “According to our investigation, Oh told Shim to ask for an approval by Minister Chung to mention his name for this job. Seo said to Shim that he ‘received the approval’ even though he did not receive Chung’s approval. And Shim delivered this to Oh.”

The presidential office confirmed that Oh asked Professor Chung to employ “A,” saying it was “Minister Chung’s request.”

The presidential office examined the details of the phone conversations during the last three months between Minister Chung and other people related in this scandal. However, it did not find any record of the minister speaking with “A” or Seo. The office said that former Vice Minister Oh is an object of punishment for damaging the public image of government officials and that it will, however, not make any further measure since his resignation has been processed. It will report the findings regarding Shim to the Ministry of Culture and allow the ministry to make an appropriate measure about Shim’s case.

Jung-Hun Kim jnghn@donga.com