Is the Law Finally Catching up to Park Geun-hye?

From her gated home in Gangnam, former President Park Geun-hye zipped to the main prosecutor’s office in Seoul for questioning as a criminal suspect. Police motorcycles led Park’s motorcade while helicopters hovered closely overhead. Door-to-door, just after rush hour, she made the roughly 20-minute trip in under ten.

Park’s ability to clear busy boulevards may be her only remaining power. But even that is not really in her control; all former South Korean presidents, even impeached ones, receive a security detail for life.

The road ahead looks bumpy for Park, the first democratically elected president in South Korea’s history to be removed from office. With her impeachment upheld by the Constitutional Court, she can now be investigated by law enforcement for her role in the corruption scandal that saw her ousted from the Blue House. “It is expected to be a very intense investigation,” says Lim Ji-bong, a professor of law at Sogang University, the alma mater of the former president and lawmaker.

After refusing to cooperate with prosecutors for months, Park, now a civilian, had little choice but to sit for questioning, which began March 21. It was that or risk being arrested as prosecutors build evidence to press charges for her alleged role in a corruption scandal that has incensed much of the country.

Park is accused of helping her friend, Choi Soon-sil, set up allegedly bogus foundations in a scheme to get rich. The foundations received millions of dollars in donations, possible bribes, from major South Korean companies. Prosecutors are trying to pin charges of abuse of power, bribery, and coercion, among others, on Park. (Editors Note: On March 31, after this piece was first published, Park was arrested on charges including bribery.)

The prosecution has hinted at applying for a warrant to arrest Park as they gather evidence. The same tactic was used against Samsung Group heir Jay Y. Lee. He’s being held in a detention center while he’s tried on charges of bribing Choi in return for government favors. Choi is also detained and on trial. All three deny any wrongdoing.

Hwang Ju-myung, the chairman of HMP Law and a former district and Supreme Court judge (not to be confused with the Constitutional Court), says an arrest warrant should only be issued if the suspect is a flight risk. But in practice, he says, once prosecutors arrest someone, they can find facts to build a case.

He says prosecutors may be slow to arrest Park because despite what they say, there’s not enough evidence to charge her yet. But there is a saying in Korean, Hwang says, that if you shake anyone, “you’ll find some dust comes off them.”

Prosecutors are finally getting to directly shake the former president. The question is how much dust will fall.

Some legal experts, such as Sogang’s Lim, already see the dust piling up. The evidence for Park’s complicity in crimes, says Lim, has been revealed through the investigations of Choi Soon-sil and two of Park’s closest aides. The main question is how deep her involvement was, experts suggest.

The head of the special investigation approved by the National Assembly, Park Young-soo, apparently amassed enough evidence that he felt confident recommending more than a dozen charges for Park, including abuse of power and taking bribes. At the time his investigation ended – incomplete, as he was denied an extension – he could not indict the former president. She still had immunity ahead of the Constitutional Court's ruling on her impeachment.

The court’s ruling finalized Park’s removal from office and returned her to civilian life, but it’s not a validation of guilt on many of the charges prosecutors hope to press. The court, for one, didn’t touch on bribery or extortion allegations in its decision to uphold Park’s impeachment by the National Assembly, according to an article on the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) blog “North Korea: Witness to Transformation.” That doesn’t mean she’s not guilty of those charges. The court chose to focus on the counts it found satisfied impeachment, including allowing Choi to interfere in state affairs.

In proving bribery, prosecutors may need dust to fall from some of South Korea’s most powerful people: Namely, the heads of chaebols (family-run conglomerates) who allegedly made the bribes. It’s no secret they gave money to Choi’s foundations, MIR and K-Sports, but did they expect anything in return?

Unless evidence suggests there was quid pro quo for contributions, it could be hard to prove Park received bribes, says Stephan Haggard of PIIE, co-author of the aforementioned blog. An exchange for favors is something companies are “clearly not likely to admit,” he says.

Some of the country’s biggest chaebols, such as Samsung and Lotte, are being investigated for giving money to MIR and K-Sports. Some executives say the money was just that, donations. Others say they were coerced.

In one sense, despite their efforts so far, investigators are just getting started with Park. The executive privilege that makes it so hard to investigate a president has been stripped away. Now, Park says, she’s ready to cooperate.

Before her first interrogation, Park made a brief statement, saying she’s sorry to the people and she’ll “faithfully” go through with the interrogation. A senior official at the prosecutor's office said Park chose not to exercise her right to remain silent, according to Yonhap. The news agency also reported she denied all charges throughout the session.

Hwang of HMP Law says prosecutors hope to push Park toward a confession. In Korean sentiment, Hwang says, a criminal in the judicial process is expected to come clean, apologize, and plead for mercy. If you don’t, you’re seen as a “bad” person.

But Park’s silence is telling; it’s a sign of her unwavering defiance. She clung to office until she was kicked out. Now, prosecutors want to send her to jail. Unlike the impeachment trial, however, Park is not alone. When the dust settles, many powerful people may be out of a job.