Fresh allegations continued to surface Wednesday surrounding embattled Justice Minister nominee Cho Kuk’s daughter as a confirmation hearing for Cho was scheduled for Friday. 

Local reports said Cho’s wife, a professor at Dongyang University, fraudulently issued an award for her daughter under the name of the university’s president without the president’s knowledge. The daughter, now 28, listed the award as one of her achievements on her application to the Pusan National University Graduate School of Medicine.

A conservative local media outlet also reported that Cho’s wife had contacted the school’s administrative office, asking it to write a press release explaining that the award had been granted to her daughter through a fair procedure.

Cho denied the allegations, saying his daughter had received the award fairly.

Dongyang University said Wednesday that it had opened an internal investigation.

The prosecution is speeding up its investigation into allegations that Cho’s daughter received preferential treatment in the process of being admitted to a prominent university and that his family made dubious investments in a private equity firm.

On Tuesday the prosecution raided the office of Cho’s wife at Dongyang University in Yeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, as well as the Korea International Cooperation Agency in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, where the justice minister nominee’s daughter did volunteer work as a high school student. It also summoned for questioning a Dankook University professor, who in 2008 listed Cho’s daughter as the primary author of his medical research paper.

Despite a rare press conference Monday, in which Cho denied all the allegations and apologized for failing to properly oversee his daughter’s college applications and his family’s investments, public sentiment appears to remain sour.

The student council of Seoul National University, where Cho, an SNU alumnus, is a law professor, plans to hold a rally at 6 p.m. next Monday to urge him to step down.

Choi Soon-sil, confidante of former President Park Geun-hye, impeached in 2017 over a corruption scandal, released a statement through a former lawmaker who visited her in prison, accusing Cho of covering up the fact that his daughter had enjoyed a “free pass.”

Choi, who is serving a 20-year sentence for corruption, compared her daughter Chung Yoo-ra, who was also accused of receiving special favors in the university admission process, to Cho’s daughter, asking where “justice” is.

Last week, Choi’s case was sent back to the high court and she is waiting to find out if her sentence will be changed.

President Moon Jae-in is expected to press ahead with Cho’s appointment, regardless of the confirmation hearing report, as early as this weekend. Moon is scheduled to return from a six-day trip to three Southeast Asian countries on Friday.

Amid the wrangling between parties over the confirmation hearing, Moon on Tuesday asked the National Assembly to send its hearing report on Cho to the presidential office by Friday.

A report from a confirmation hearing is a procedure affirming parliamentary consent to the president’s nomination of a minister-level official, but it is not mandatory as the president can unilaterally appoint nominees.



(laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)