Justice minister further cornered over son's military service

Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae leaves the National Assembly in Seoul, Monday. /Yonhap

By Kim Se-jeong

Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae found herself in deeper trouble Monday, as an additional allegation regarding her son's military service surfaced over the weekend.

According to the main opposition People Power Party, a reserve colonel confided to a conservative party lawmaker that when he was in charge of a unit involving Choo's son in 2017, he received numerous requests from the National Assembly and Ministry of National Defense to assign him, identified by his surname Seo, to the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games as an interpreter, claiming the powerful politician used her influence to have her son assigned a relatively easy task. Choo was the leader of the ruling Minjoo Party at the time.

Seo served his military duty at the Korean Augmentation Troops to the United States Army (KATUSA) between 2016 and 2018 and the Olympics were held in early 2018.

Military service is mandatory for Korean men and has long involved corruption as people with power attempt to have their sons either exempted from service or assigned to easy tasks.

"I knew those requests could be problematic and changed the way we selected the interpreters. Then, I told Choo's son and other soldiers who had applied for interpreter positions that we were going to draw lots to be fair, for I received many requests to select a certain man," the reserve colonel was quoted as saying by Rep. Shin Won-sik from the conservative People Power Party.

This is another blow to Choo who was already faced with an allegation that her son's 2017 sick leave was a privilege gained through his powerful mother's influence, which allowed him to skip official procedures required by internal rules. The case is under the review of the prosecutors' office.

Those who accuse Choo claim that the lack of records linked to Seo's sick leave requests indicate he used his mother's influence to skip required procedures, which could amount to a corruption charge. Last month, Shin also revealed that Choo's personal aide had made a phone call on Seo's behalf for the sick leave request.

Choo and her son are denying the allegations.

On Monday, a group of prospective lawyers filed a complaint with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office against the minister and her son, pressuring the law enforcement body to look into the case.

"We're renewing our calls for the jumpstart of the investigation into the two people," the group wrote in the complaint.

Less than a month ago, the judge-turned-minister lambasted the nation's law enforcement officers for corruption and demanded a higher moral ground. She also publicly rebuked those who were reluctant to comply with the President Moon Jae-in administration's reform drive. One of them was Prosecutor-General Yoon Seok-youl against whom she used her power to isolate.

Critics of Moon have likened Choo to her disgraced predecessor Cho Kuk, who was forced to leave the minister position because of corruption allegations involving his family members.

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