Deputy Prime Minister for Economy Choi Kyung-hwan has been embroiled in allegations that he exerted influence to get his former intern a job at a state-run corporation.

The case had already been probed by the Board of Audit and Inspection and the prosecution has taken over the case. And this week, more allegations came out through a newspaper report, this time about cover-up attempts.

Judging from the report, which quoted the transcript of a conversation between officials of the Small and Medium Business Corporation, it seems apparent that there was a systemic cover-up attempt with a high possibility of Choi’s involvement.

The transcript shows that SBC President Lim Chae-un told the corporation’s former human resources head in October that he should “protect” Choi so that he could survive the scandal. Lim reminded the official that “Choi still has real power.”

Lim also told the official, who was to undergo questioning by prosecutors, that he had only to shift responsibility to Park Cheol-kyu, the former SBC president who allegedly instructed officials to hire Choi’s former intern in 2013. This too seemed aimed at keeping Choi, a close confidant of President Park Geun-hye who doubles as finance minister, away from the probe.

The latest development convinces us that Choi asked Park, a former Finance Ministry official, to give favors to his former intern when she applied for a job at the state-run corporation.

There has already been testimony supporting the allegations. A former vice president of the SBC said in a parliamentary audit that the former intern was put in the list of successful applicants after Park came back to his office after meeting Choi, then a senior ruling party lawmaker.

Announcing its probe result in September, the BAI said that the former intern placed 2,299th among about 4,500 applicants in the resume review, but her score was fabricated to make the 174 finalists, and her interview score was also faked to be included in the list of 36 successful applicants.

At that time, the BAI said there had been “outside pressure” in the case, but did not say from. Prosecutors should look into the BAI probe too, since there have been allegations that SBC officials asked Choi to pressure the BAI and also contacted senior BAI officials for favors. 

So far, prosecutors have raided the SBC office and summoned Park and other officials to determine whether they hired Choi’s former intern at his request. The probe now should expand to find out whether there was an organized cover-up attempt and whether Choi had played any part. Examinations of the records of Choi’s meetings and telephone conversations would suffice.