Ruling Party Connives with Ex-Justice Minister in Its Own Ruin

Minjoo Party leader Song Young-gil offered a weasel apology Wednesday for the scandal surrounding fly-by-night Justice Minister Cho Kuk, who has just published his memoirs to defend himself against what he calls "slaughter" by the press and prosecution. Instead of eating humble pie and letting be, the new party leader then went on, "The standards applied to investigating former minister Cho should be applied equally to controversies surrounding former Prosecutor-General Yoon Seok-youl's family." Even while pretending to apologize for Cho's misconduct, in other words, the MP chief could not help himself and had to attack Yoon, who has perhaps damaged the party's standing and credibility more than anyone else simply by standing up to it. Song said Cho's memoir "argues against the news media who merely parroted the claims of the prosecution." Never mind that Cho's wife has just been sentenced to seven years in jail for her role in the scandals, he added, "Graduating from a good university and using connections to have children obtain internships to pad their resumes may not be a blatant violation of the law, but such acts disappointed and frustrated young people." It appears that in the eyes of this senior politician, forgery and lying are not illegal but merely ethically dubious. Diehard supporters of Cho within the ruling party still threatened to relieve Song of the chairmanship for even making that small admission, and one presidential hopeful in the MP said his "heart aches" for Cho.

President Moon Jae-in himself should be apologizing for his bent crony, but he has never even mentioned the matter, let alone explained why he still appointed Cho when the scandal was closing in around him. Moon did say, mysteriously, that he owes a "debt" to Cho, but he probably did not mean it in the sense of omerta. Cho was at any rate buoyed by Son's remarks. "I will expend my energy in defending and healing my family, which has been slaughtered by the prosecution, so I urge the Minjoo Party to step over me and march on," he said. But even as he presented himself as a victim, he could not help boasting that the book has already sold over 100,000 copies, a feat he described as "unprecedented." Did any man ever have thicker skin?

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