Chief of scandal probe regrets leaving many suspicions uninvestigated

The chief of the independent probe into President Park Geun-hye and her associates on Friday regretted that his team failed to get to the bottom of the deep corruptive links between political power and business giants which underlie the whole scandal.

The special prosecution led by lawyer Park Young-soo wrapped up the 70-day probe Tuesday. A total of 30 people, including Samsung Group's de facto leader Lee Jae-yong, were indicted and the president was named as a bribery suspect who colluded with her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil.
  Independent Counsel Park Young-soo (C, front) and his team members leave their office in southern Seoul on March 3, 2017, to attend a meeting with reporters as they wrap up their 70-day investigation into an influence-peddling scandal centered on President Park Geun-hye earlier in the week. (Yonhap)
In a lunch meeting with reporters, however, Park was apologetic to the nation for leaving many suspicions unresolved.

"I should have fulfilled my duty as the independent counsel by clarifying suspicions including those surrounding Woo Byung-woo, SK and Lotte. I feel sorry to the nation about that," he said.

Woo, former presidential secretary, was not charged despite allegations about his close ties with Choi and suspected wrongdoing implicating his family. The Lotte and SK groups also avoided prosecution though their chiefs were questioned over bribery suspicions.

He emphasized the scandal derived from the deep-rooted collusion between the government and large businesses still rampant in the country.

"There are two pillars in this Choi Soon-sil case. One is that Choi meddled in state affairs using her ties to the president. And the other is the collusion between politics and business," he said.

"Choi used the alliance between politics and business that already existed," he said, adding it was not just about a friend of a president peddling influence using the ties to the country's leader.

Park, impeached late last year following the scandal, is now awaiting the Constitutional Court's decision on her ouster. Her friend Choi is standing trial over a string of corruption allegations.

The investigation was one of the largest-scale inquiries by an independent counsel in the nation.

In addition to the bribery and policy manipulation cases, it also dealt with a broad range of other alleged irregularities, including undue medical treatments Park received and the creation of a blacklist of artists critical of the government.

"Though we are done with the investigation, trials remain," the special prosecutor said. "The upcoming trials on Samsung and the blacklist will be trials of the century that the world will be looking at. We are bracing ourselves for them." (Yonhap)

(责任编辑：行业动态)