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Things that happened over a Dead Body (Victim of Water Cannon) - "The Choi Sun-sil Gate"

Arranged by Yoon Park

October 27, 2016

Mr. Baek Nam-gi, who had been hit down by the water cannon of the S. Korean police during a mass protest last year, finally died on the 23rd last month after an almost one-year long coma status. Even the UN Commissions on Human Rights released an announcement demanding a special investigation on Mr. Baek's case (September 28), but the S Korean police and prosecutors, who had decided to perform an autopsy to find out 'the real cause' of his death and received a 'conditional' one-month term warrant by the judge ('upon Mr. Baek's family's agreement'), had been trying to take Mr. Baek's dead body for the autopsy. Their decision was based upon the late Mr. Baek's death certificate signed by Baek Sun-ha, Mr. Baek's doctor who had classified the cause of his death as disease, not as injury, on the certificate ("A Strange Death Certificate of Baek Nam-gi" by Myungju Lee, Min[people]Plus, 10/21/06). Doctor Baek Sun-ha holds a record of having been suspended from his position (doctor and professor at Seoul National University Medical School) for his involvement in Whang Woo-suk's stem cell scandal back in 2005 (mlbpark, 10/03/16). The warrant by the judge was supposed to be effective till the 25th this month.

At the late night 22nd this month, this past Saturday, a S Korean nation-wide TV channel sbs released the recorded film of the scene (the late Mr. Baek getting shut by the police's water cannon) several dozen times through its regular current-affairs analysis program, with a detailed re-enact test of the power of the water cannon used by the police. By this broadcasting of sbs, the actual and direct cause of the late Mr. Baek Nam-gi's death (fatal brain injury from the water cannon shooting) was put its reality-face out before the whole public in S Korea.

Nevertheless, the police did never stop trying to get Mr. Baek's dead body for autopsy the following day (Sunday), and numerous citizens accordingly did never stop trying to guard the late Mr. Baek's body, following the will of Mr. Baek's family, protesting at downtown Seoul and staying overnight at Seoul National University Hospital where Mr. Baek’s body has been kept, never able to get a peaceful funeral one month after his death ("We will guard Mr. Baek Nam-gi to the End," by Heo Sooyung, 10/22/16, "The Police Persists to Discuss about the Autopsy with the Family," by Myungju Lee, 10/23/16, Min[people]Plus).

And then the 24th, Monday Morning, President Park Geun-hye all of a sudden announced that the Blue House would lead to amend the Constitution in regard to the presidential election system, at her National Assembly address that morning. The whole nation was shocked because President Park had been persistently against the constitutional amendment (the presidential election system) calling the matter "a black hole which absorbs all other matters critical for the people's daily life" until very recently. Upon the President's abrupt change of opinion on this matter, the media-press and the politicians raised suspicions and questions, reporting and saying that President Park might be intending to cover the Choi Sun-sil Gate and the related potential charge for Woo Byung-woo, the chief secretary to the Blue House ("Is there Any Sincerity in the President's Proposal of the Constitutional Amendment?" by Heo Sooyung, Min[people]Plus, 10/25/16).

There were voices that the discourse on the amendment matter should be led by the people's charge, and the demand that the President first clarify the suspicion of 'the illegal hidden power line in acting' and stop executing the old-fashioned National Security Law and the executive dictatorship ("What the heck is at Stake? -the President's Out-of-Body Experience," by Go Seungwoo, Min[people]Plus, 10/25/16). The remark of the National Security Law was in regard to the fact that the authority concerned had summoned and investigated members of the S Committee of the 6.15 Joint Agreement Fulfillment Association upon that law concerning their meeting with the Northern Committee members in China earlier this month ("The National Security Law run out from Museum," by Kang Hoseok, Min[people]Plus, 10/24/16). Meanwhile, the citizens' endeavor to guard the late Mr. Baek Nam-gi had not stopped at all, days and nights, at Seoul National University Hospital.

And the Late Evening, the 24th, still Monday, a S Korean cable TV channel jtbc exploded the fact, on its regular evening news show, that Choi Sun-sil had edited President Park Geun-hye's official texts of speeches for about forty times till the mid-2014, including her Dresden speech, the President's blueprint on the South-North Korean relationship. 

According to jtbc, Choi Sun-sil, before she hurriedly flew away to Germany, had evacuated her several offices in Seoul and abandoned some office equipment including her personal tablet computer (assumingly she was using till mid-2014) in which the President's text of speech files and others are stored, asking a building security to 'sell' them, and the jtbc news crew had obtained it. 

Who Is Choi Sun-sil, by the way?

She seems an ordinary Korean woman (60 years old) with no apparent occupation currently. But her father, Choi Tae-min (1912-1994: a Buddhist monk and 'self-ordained' Christianity minister according to Gukmin Ilbo, "Choi Sun-sil's father Choi Tae-min is not a minister," 10/25/16. ; founder of a religious group ‘Forever-living’; His one nickname is ‘Korean Raspu'tin’) started to have a unique relationship with President Park Geun-hye in the mid-1970's, when she, as the eldest daughter of then the S Korean president Park Chung-hee, was preforming the role of the first lady of S Korea on behalf of her deceased mother, and their close relationship is known to have continued till he died in 1994.

It is said that President Park's deceased mother one day appeared in Choi Tae-min's dream and asked him to take care of her eldest daughter, and President Park bought this story of Choi Tae-min back in the mid 1970's. Choi Sun-sil first met President Park through her father and also has had a very close relationship with President Park. Choi Sun-sil succeeded her father’s position in the religious group out of his 9 children from 5 wives because she got her father’s spiritual power, they say. Her recently-divorced husband Chung Yun-hoe, known as President's Parks hidden assistant, was on media-press a couple of years ago as the main character of the Blue House's revealed confidential documents scandal.

This Choi Sun-sil last year established two foundations (yeah, the 'foundation' here in S Korea, too) and received ‘donations’ from the largest conglomerates of S Korea through the Federation of Korean Industries (approximately 80 million US dollars), with the help of a Blue House core staff member. Various suspicions, such as that a guy, a high-ranking insider of the two foundations, was in fact organizing and executing diverse governmental events held by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism with the governmental budget, had recently been being released continuously.

Also, according to a S Korean alternative media GoBal[foot]News, Kim Gi-chun who was deeply involved in the early period of President' Park's administration (also one of the closest assistants to her father in the 1970's), started to have a deep secret relationship with Choi Sun-sil from right after Park was elected in 2012, living at one of her buildings for longer than 6 months, and comprehensively discussed about the Elect's and later the early period of the President Park's administrative matters ("Lee Sang-ho's In Fact, Chasing Choi's dozens-of-billions-of-dollars.. What was Kim Gi-chun doing right there?" 10/19/16). He later was appointed chief secretary of the Blue House in August 2013 and resigned one year after the Sewol Ferry Disaster. The news saying this Choi Sun-sil had edited the S Korean President's texts of speeches more than 40 times till 2014 and the President had read them as she had edited, was broadcast at the night of the 24th.

And the 25th, the Final Day on the warrant for the dead body autopsy

Due to the news the previous night, the National Assembly and the whole media-press was in turmoil surrounding the Choi Sun-sil Gate, from demanding the President's sincere apology to the Korean citizens to reporting analysis how much influence Choi Sun-sil's illegal hidden power was on the government's budget for 2017 ("2017 Culture Budget Planned by Cha?" by Kim Chongsun, Min[people]Plus, 10/25/16) in the morning this day, which was yesterday in fact.

In the midst of this turmoil, though, the police announced that they would forcefully execute the autopsy warrant at three o'clock in the afternoon and headed to Seoul National University Hospital, moving the police toward the hospital. Upon hearing the news, more citizens also hurried to gather to the Hospital to guard the late Mr. Baek, some by cab (Ohmynews live broadcast), and President Park did apologize to the people, saying that she had help for the text of speech several times from Choi, Sun-sil, but it was before the official professional staff was organized. The President's apology was broadcast (supposedly live) nationwide 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

Yet,

The Hangyoreh Newspaper, which had set a Task Force for the Choi Sun-sil Gate and had been chasing her for longer than one month, released an atomic-bomb size news on-line, which disclosed the fact that Choi Sun-sil had received some 30-cm-thick documents from the Blue House every night at her office, had called 2-5 persons and 'ordered' to do this and that to the Presidential executive documents, upon her own judgment, and the persons had done so following her 'order', until very recently. The Hangyoreh reported this upon its 16-hour-long interview with a former general secretary of 'the' foundation who quit this past June ("Choi Lead the Illegal Line Every Night with the Presidential Documents carried back and forth by Chung Ho-sung," 10/25/16). According to this article, the President's abrupt decision of ‘Shutting down the Gaesung Industrial Complex’ earlier this year was also included in Choi's regular decision making procedures as such.

Most probably thanks to this nuclear-bombing disclosure of the Hangyoreh that was dropped on the internet only about 20 minutes prior to the President's recorded 96-second-apology broadcast, the police withdrew from the hospital later that evening, saying that the reason they could not execute the warrant was that the family would not agree on the autopsy, and that they would discuss whether to re-request the warrant or not with the prosecutors. The late Mr. Baek's family members announced their gratitude to the citizens who had helped guard the late Mr. Baek days and nights since the 23rd last month when Mr. Baek finally passed away.

Later this night, jtbc further broadcasted, with more and deeper details, situations where Choi Sun-sil was very much deeply intervening in President Park's decision-making procedures for a long time.

And Today, October 26, 2016.

The top search words on the internet have still been 'impeach,' 'resign,' 'Choi Sun-sil,' 'Choi Tae-min' and so on, absolutely most related to the Choi Sun-sil Gate today since yesterday afternoon. The whole media-press is busy covering further news, already known and newly known, on the Choi Sun-sil Gate. Among them there is the news that Choi had even seriously intervened in some Minister-appointing procedures, too. It is said that the real President of S Korea so far was Choi Sun-sil, not Park Geun-hye. The floor leader of the opposition party declares that the National Intelligence Service knows where Choi is now, and some political leaders start to demand establish an all-party Cabinet to handle the current situation. Min[people]Plus covers what happened throughout the modern S Korean history when situations like this time in turmoil and cautiously anticipates that President Park might have to establish an all-party Cabinet before she resigns ("What happens thereafter when a president resigns?" by Kang Hoseok, 10/26/16).

Several civic organizations demanded this early afternoon that President Park resign from her position ("Civic Society Altogether Shout 'President Resign Right Now!" by Heo Sooyung). Two Korean National Assembly members (also leading members of the S Korean progressive-liberal political party preparation organization The People's Dream) have declared that they would lead the civic activism demanding that Park Geun-hye resign from her presidency ("Yoon Jong-oh, Kim Jong-hun; Resign, Park Geun-hye," by Kang Hoseok, Min[people]Plus 10/26/16). Min[people]Plus also covered President Park Geun-hye and her father president Park Chung-hee, and the day October 26 and the Blue House. ("10.26, the Blue House and the Father and Daughter Parks," by Go Seungwoo.) And the Blue House, as of today, is in deep silence so far, all day long.

October 26, this date in 1979, Park Chung-hee, the 18-year-long dictator of S Korea and father of President Park Geun-hye, was shot by his subordinate and died. His daughter Park Geun-hye as of today, at least in terms of her political life, seems not at all in an okay condition tonight, with Choi Sun-sil the generation-succeeding guardian of her soul perhaps, missing somewhere in Germany, or wherever Park hopefully knows.