Ex-Justice Minister Cho Kuk says he respects his children's decision

“As a parent it hurts,” Cho said Monday at the Seoul High Court, where he attended the first hearing to appeal his conviction for pulling strings for his children’s admissions to college and later on to medical school and graduate school.

Former Justice Minister Cho Kuk on Monday arrives at the High Court in Seocho-dong, Seoul, to attend his first appeal against an earlier ruling. Earlier this year he was sentenced to two years related to false documents and certificates that were used in his children getting admitted to college, medical school and graduate school. [YONHAP]

Former Justice Minister and Seoul National University law professor Cho Kuk said he respects the decisions of his children to start over from scratch.

“As a parent it hurts,” Cho said Monday at the Seoul High Court, where he attended the first hearing to appeal his conviction for pulling strings for his children’s admissions to college and later on to medical school and graduate school.

"My children have decided to give up everything including their degree and [doctor’s] license that is connected to the problematic documents after giving much thought," Cho said.

He said the entire family accepted the Supreme Court decision in January last year against his wife Chung Kyung-sim, which upheld a high court sentence of four years of tampering with documents, including forgery.

Seoul Central District Court in February sentenced Cho to two years in prison for obstructing the business of multiple universities, including submitting fake certificates and even taking an online test on behalf of his son while he was attending George Washington University.

The verdict came more than three years after Cho was indicted.

However, Cho was not taken into immediate custody as the court ruled he posed no risk to flee or destroy evidence.

“We are reflecting upon ourselves,” Cho said. “I'd again like to take the opportunity to make an apology.”

The former Justice Minister’s daughter, Cho Min, recently dropped her appeal against Korea University, where she got her bachelor's degree, and Pusan National University, where she attended medical school, for withdrawing her admissions.

She also said that she was turning in her doctor’s license.

His son, Cho Won, also announced that he is returning the masters’ degree he received from Yonsei University.

The move came when the prosecutors’ office, through local media, said it was looking into whether to indict the daughter, who has been claiming her innocence in public, though the court convicted both her parents for tampering with official documents regarding college admissions.

The statute of limitation against Cho Min for fabricating documents and obstructing official duties will expire in August.

Initially it was supposed to expire in June 2021 as Cho Min enrolled in medical school in 2014.

The statute of limitation against official document foregery is seven years.

However, it was put on hold for two years as her mother was indicted in November 2019 and the final verdict came out last year.

Cho was admitted to the medical school through certificates and credentials on her volunteer work and internship.

She never took the Medical Education Eligibility Test.

Pusan National University revoked her admission in April 2022.

After the Seoul District Court sentenced her father Cho Kuk earlier this yera, she appeared on a YouTube channel and claimed that there was nothing to hide.

“I have lived the past four years as the daugther of former minister Cho Kuk," Cho Min said on Kim Eo-jun's YouTube aired on Feb. 6. "After my father was convicted, I wondered if I have lived a life of shame. "But I didn't," she said. "So, I made the decision not to hide [from the public] anymore and live as Cho Min and not as the daughter of Cho Kuk.”

She claimed that her colleagues in the medical community sees her as a person, who is qualified to be a doctor.

She said she would not work at a hospital, given her notoriety, and dedicate her skills exclusively to volunteer work, despite a Busan court ruling nullifying her medical school graduation, a basic prerequisite for a doctor's license.

Since then, Cho Min has accompanied her father during his book tour and continued to exert her family's innocence.

Cho Kuk went on to claim during a book tour in Daegu in May that nobody was hurt just because his daughter was admitted to medical school.

“No other student failed to get admitted because of my daughter,” Cho claimed.

“The Pusan National University committee held an investigation in which the result was that the Dongyang University citation did not influence the admission,” Cho said.

The Dongyang University was one of the key document that Cho Min’s mother Chung was convicted of fabricating.

Chung was the professor at the Dongyang University where she made a false citation that claimed that her daughter had received for teaching middle and high school students English. The school has never handed out such citation. Evidence of fabrication including the school logo that was printed on the citation was found on Chung’s computer.

Cho Min, who have been increasing her public activities including YouTube videos, on July 7 posted on her Instagram that she is now letting everything go.

“As I have said before, I am turning in my doctor’s license,” Cho Min wrote on her Instagram post that is now deleted. “In addition I am also dropping by lawsuit against Korea University and Pusan National University’s that nullified my admission. “I am going back to the beginning and starting all over,” Cho Min said.

Cho Min in another post on Instagram announce of returning her doctor’s license in June.

“Until now I have used my doctor’s license only on medical volunteer programs,” Cho Min said in her post. “I thought it was inappropriate to conduct medical service while my license revoke hearing was still underway. “I have decided to turn in my doctor’s license and end all of my medical activity after finishing planned volunteer program in taking responsibility on the social controversy caused by me.”

However, the JoongAng Ilbo reported that Cho had requested the Health Ministry that was already in the process of revoking her license to give her another chance.

“Last month we had sent her a notification that we were holding a hearing regarding the cancellation of her license,” said a Health Ministry official. “But she didn’t attend the hearing that was held on June 15.”

The official said the Health Ministry had asked that she verify the results of the hearing.

“We are reviewing the requests from Cho’s on giving another opportunity on the hearing,” the official said.

In addition to Cho Min dropping the case against the schools that nullified her admissions as she faces indictment from the prosecution, there are also interpretations on the recent change in attitude of the Cho family on the father gearing up for the general election next year.

Cho Kuk while has never admitted in public as to whether he would be running for a seat in the National Assembly, his visit to President Moon Jae-in last month has raised such speculations.

It was his first visit since President Moon left office in May 2022.

Cho Kuk on his Facebook post on June 10 reminisced his time working at the Blue House as the most happiest time criticized the current government.

“Everything under the Moon Jae-in government is denied and degraded,” Cho Kuk wrote. “I am giving much thought as to what I could do at a time when everything is going in reverse and regressed. “I will walk the path where there are no roads,” Cho said. “Where there are no maps and no compass.”

Several Democratic Party lawmakers told the JoongAng Ilbo that Cho Kuk’s statement was actually an announcement that he will be jumping into the general election.

Among those that strongly believe that Cho Kuk will be competing for the National Assembly seat next year includes DP Rep. Lee Sang-min.

“Anyone who tries to run in the election tries to show off their existence and make their names known,” Lee said while appearing on a YTN radio show last month. “That’s what Cho is doing.”

However, some of the DP members seem to show some concern especially since Cho Kuk and his family’s controversy is considered to be one of the reasons they lost in the last couple of elections including the by-election that cost the DP its mayoral office in Seoul and Busan.

“There’s endless debate over the possibility of Cho running for the general election,” said DP Rep. Jung Sung-ho, who is considered to be one of the closest aid to DP leader Lee Jae-myung, while appearing on a KBS radio a week after Cho made his visit to President Moon.

“I hope that former Minister Cho would make a wise judgment,” Jung said nothing the several legal battles that Cho Kuk face.

“I hope he would get a good results [on the cases] by focusing more here [the cases],” Jung said.

On Monday in front of the appeal court Cho Kuk said that he is busying looking back on their mistakes not only of its past but also the present and focusing on his family, when asked if he has any plan for running in the election.

“There are a lot of people that writes fictions using their baseless imagination about my future,” Cho Kuk said.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]