As the Chae Dong-wook affair lingers on, disdain grows not only on the nation’s law enforcement mechanism but on the state authority at large. This adds to the public fatigue from watching the protracted confrontations between rival political parties. 

Everyone offered a scenario on the relations between the prosecutor general and the mother of the boy the Chosun Ilbo claimed to be his illegitimate child and the way the mysterious paternity question could be resolved once and for all. Conspiracy theories flared up over why the Chosun raised the suspicion out of blue, where the paper was getting the information to conjure up the story, which opposition figures were helping Chae, why the Blue House was pressing the Justice Ministry for the ouster of the top prosecutor and so on.

As days passed since the newspaper printed the story early this month, people who had initially been skeptical about the “expose” and critical of nosing into the private affair moved to join the condemning group, calling for the prosecutor general’s early “surrender.” When Chae filed a suit against the Chosun, however, for a retraction of the story, pledging to take a DNA test with the boy in question, many seem to swing back to the side of the censured.

When I read news articles about the suit Chae filed with the Seoul Central District Court, a serious question arose in my thoughts. Can all these assertions be blatant lies coming from a man who has worked and lived for law and order throughout the 30 years of his professional career? Is it possible that someone could weave the fabric of deception so meticulously in order to protect himself from public disgrace and the disrespect of his family?

Well, as a seasoned jurist, he must know how to make the best use of legal procedures to escape from the predicament he was put into by the news article. But, would he choose to cheat his erstwhile colleagues, the media and the whole world instead of acquiescing to his personal aberration, if he really had an extramarital relationship and had a son from it? I would rather doubt that this was the case, and here I see the effect of the suit.

In my little understanding of humanity, man cannot afford such an extensive falsehood unless he sold his soul to the devil. If Chae Dong-wook was that kind of man, the outcome of his suit against the newspaper would be meaningless. If he was lying, he must be given highest punishment by his own conscience, no matter what verdict the court may hand down.

Chae says in the suit that he does not even know the whereabouts of “Ms. Y and her son,” and that he would apply for a DNA test as soon as he obtains their address and other personal data. He devoted most of the 40 pages of the suit to denying, countering and refuting the assertions in the Chosun’s articles that he determined to be “100 percent false.” He asserted that he had neither extramarital nor any inappropriate relations with the woman and that he was just one of many customers of the restaurant she operated.

We have seen so many bribery cases, in which the accused denied receiving money from somebody who testified to bribing the defendant. In the end, the accused are either convicted or acquitted depending on the availability of material evidence, and acquittal sometimes comes on the grounds that money exchanged hands without any favor given in return. The judgment of black and white will be clearer in this paternity case which can be decided by the result of a DNA test. Yet, the Chosun can claim the pursuit of public interests in the event it lost the suit.

The Chae case has an unfortunate backdrop of the numerous scandals involving ill-disciplined, corrupt prosecutors. There were the “sponsored prosecutors” in Busan who MBC-TV revealed as the recipients of long-standing money and sex bribery by a construction businessman, the woman prosecutor who delivered investigation tips to her lover who happened to be the counsel for a criminal, and the prosecutor apprentice who interviewed a woman suspect alone in his office after duty hours and then slept with her in a nearby motel. Then, the vice justice minister appointee in the Park administration resigned after his name was found in the list of regular invitees to sex parties at a suburban villa thrown by a businessman.

Coincidentally, another case of paternity contention drew media attention, involving the family of the Rev. Cho Yong-gi, founder of the Seoul Full Gospel Church, and a onetime female presidential secretary. In separate interviews, Cho Hui-joon, Rev. Cho’s eldest son who runs an assortment of secular businesses, and Ms. Cha Young call each other liars for their wildly differing accounts of their romantic association a decade ago. Yet, Cho has not positively denied his fatherhood of the child who is registered as a son of Cha and her present husband.

As the Cho family case will have some impact on society’s attitude toward the religious community, the Chae Dong-wook affair is further weakening the prestige of the offices that interferes with the people’s lives in the name of justice, even before truth is established. One is dismayed to find that his trust in prosecutors, and in their next-door neighbors in the court too, has in recent years been dwindled so dramatically “to about the level that is accorded the policemen on the street,” as a despondent observer viewed.

Within three months, the maximum period the law set for the settlement of a media retraction suit, either Chae or the Chosun will emerge as the winner but the key will be the court’s ability to obtain a DNA test result. In the absence of such forensic evidence, no ruling will be convincing enough to put the controversy at rest, if a ruling is even possible.

All involved in the affair are appealed to show sincerity and courage by cooperating in a process that requires their voluntary participation. If I were to make a bet about the result, I would place it on Chae, not because I have any personal sympathy with him but because I do not want any further loss of my faith in the integrity of individuals that form the upper echelon of our society. I value it more than the credibility of a newspaper.

By Kim Myong-sik

Kim Myong-sik is a former editorial writer of The Korea Herald. ― Ed.