Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae. yunhap news
It is known that the Seoul High Prosecutor’s Office directly investigates the suspicion of returning to military leave, the son of Justice Minister Chu Mi-ae.
According to the data submitted by the Ministry of Justice, the Office of the People’s Power of People Kim Do-eup on the 1st, the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office (Chief Prosecutor Park Cheol-woong) is currently investigating the case of the non-return of his son’s vacation. At the same time, the Ministry of Justice said, “It is difficult to respond to the specific name of the prosecutor in charge, whether to review the investigation data, and the expected timing of the decision to initiate a re-investigation, etc.”
An official from the legal profession explained that the fact that the Seoul High Prosecutor’s Office said it was being investigated without giving the Dongbu District Prosecutor’s Office an’re-investigation’ order meant that it was considered an agenda that could not be entrusted to the Dongbu District Prosecutor’s Office.
In response, the Seoul High Prosecutor’s Office said, “Currently, the case is still being reviewed in accordance with the usual appeal case.”
The Dongbu District Prosecutor’s Office last year dealt with accusations against Minister Chu, his aide, and his son.
Minister Chu’s son, Mr. Seo, 27, served as a KATUSA Soldier of the US 2nd Division of the 8th US Army ROK Army Support Group in Korea in 2017, and spent a total of 23 days consecutively on the 1st and 2nd sick leave and personal vacation without returning to the unit.
The core suspicions surrounding Mr. Seo are largely divided into two categories: whether’non-return on vacation’ corresponds to leaving the military service, and whether Minister Chu requested illegally from the military to extend the vacation. The prosecution decided that both suspicions were unfounded.
Regarding the’departure from military affairs’, the prosecution decided that Seo had no purpose to evade military affairs because all of Seo’s vacation extensions were carried out with the approval of the commander. Regarding the suspicion of the request of Minister Chu, the prosecution concluded that the minister and her husband did not directly file a complaint with the military, and that the aide, Choi, did not make a request.
In the announcement of the results of this investigation, criticism has been raised as’an explicit loyalty investigation’. At the time, the prosecution began a full-fledged investigation by calling the informant and military personnel as references and investigating them only after various suspicions were raised one after another. The Dongbu District Prosecutor’s Office was also suspicious of the fairness of the investigation, including suspicion that some of the statements from military officials were omitted from the record during the investigation of the reference person.
Reporters Jiyoung Lee and Kijung Kim [email protected]