As the President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment trial gains speed, Park’s lawyers again applied for a long list of witnesses in an apparent attempt to delay the proceedings on Monday.

The Constitutional Court took a subtle jab at them, asking them to first offer long overdue explanation on some of the key allegations -- Park’s role in setting up the Mir and K-Sports foundation and her friend Cho Soon-sil’s assistance in state management. 

“What makes a difference if the witnesses appear? The witnesses (you asked for) have consistently testified that the presidential office took a lead (in extorting donations,)” Kang Il-won, the lead justice for the ongoing trial, said. 

Park’s lawyers had asked the court to bring in 39 more witnesses to court including ex-chief presidential secretary Kim Ki-choon and ex-presidential aide Woo Byung-woo.

Park, impeached by the parliament on Dec. 9, was stripped of substantial executive powers but remains immune from criminal liability. Some say she is seeking to buy time to restore support from the conservative bloc as well as to shield her from the sweeping investigation currently led by Special Counsel Park Young-soo. 

The top court decided to add two more hearings in early February to question Kim Ki-choon and officials from the entities linked to Choi, which means that the trial will proceed without the chief justice Park Han-chul whose term ends on Jan. 31. 

A decision to uphold Park’s impeachment would require consent from six of the eight remaining justices.  

Fueling expectations that a ruling may be made as early as in February, the court has already quickened court proceedings by adopting statements of 46 suspects and witnesses at the prosecutorial questioning as valid evidence. 

The eighth hearing of the impeachment trial on Monday brought in ex-Vice Culture Minister Kim Chong, TV commercial director Cha Eun-taek and Lee Seung-cul, vice chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries as witnesses. 

They are all accused of colluding with Choi Soon-sil, President Park’s longtime friend and central figure in the scandal, to coerce donations from local firms and monopolize lucrative state-led projects. The former two are arrested and standing trial for abuse of authority and coercion. 

Park’s alleged collusion with Choi in extortion of the donations is one of the key charges for her impeachment.  

Kim Chong, the ex-vice culture minister, admitted to being given orders from the presidential office to work with the K-Sports Foundation and the Blue-K, which Choi owned and used to embezzle donations, for its nationwide sports project. 

Kim also said that Park herself mentioned the name of Chung Yoo-ra, Choi’s daughter, to say the government should support “a talented athlete” like her. Chung is suspected of being illegally admitted to a prestigious university due to Choi’s ties to the president. 

On Monday, an independent counsel team investigating the corruption scandal brought in Yoo Jin-ryong, ex-culture and sports minister, accelerating its probe into Park‘s involvement in the blacklist allegations.

Yoo earlier revealed that he had seen the blacklist of cultural figures critical of the Park administration while serving as a minister. The blacklist of some 10,000 left-wing figures was allegedly used to exclude them from state support.

“I told Park that she should not make such a blacklist in 2014. But she remained silent (about my advice,)” he told reporters, appearing at the office of the independent counsel in southern Seoul. Yoo also said that Kim Ki-choon was the mastermind behind the blacklist. 

The counsel team suspects Park of ordering high-ranking government officials like Kim or ex-culture minister Cho Yoon-sun, who are both jailed, to draw up and manage the blacklist. 

The parliamentary impeachment committee plans to revise the version of the impeachment bill on Wednesday to possibly add the blacklist allegation, which could further implicate Park for a violation of her duty to uphold the Constitution.

The independent counsel team also started to investigate allegations that Choi paid for Park’s clothes, which could constitute a bribery between the two.

According to the counsel team, Park wore the clothes Choi picked and paid for from a dress shop in southern Seoul during presidential events and overseas trips. The clothes shop was raided and its employees were questioned earlier this month. 

The counsel team, meanwhile, is set to enforce a warrant to apprehend Choi, who is already in jail, on Thursday, as she has refused to respond to the investigators’ summons for questioning.
 
By Ock Hyun-ju  (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)