A snowballing sex-for-favors allegation is fast developing into a political scandal highlighting the Park Geun-hye administration’s failure to properly screen nominees for government positions.

New allegations emerged over the weekend over the presidential office’s dubious choice of a scandal-ridden prosecutor to the No. 2 post at the Justice Ministry.

Reports said that Cheong Wa Dae appointed Kim Hak-ui, a senior prosecutor, as vice justice minister, knowing that he was one of the high-ranking officials involved in the scandal.

Cheong Wa Dae flatly denied the allegations, saying the office only learned about the scandal after reports popped up about the police launching an internal investigation, five days after President Park Geun-hye appointed Kim as vice justice minister.

“The police officially briefed that there was no investigation on Kim’s allegations until the day he was nominated for the vice ministerial post,” a senior official at Cheong Wa Dae said Saturday.

“The presidential office of civil affairs also questioned Kim (of his involvment in the scandal) many times. But Kim the former vice minister said he has never met (any of people accusing him of sexual bribery),” the official said.

The presidential office, however, seems to be in a difficult position to ward off the mounting criticism.

A series of solid evidence and witnesses have appeared a few days after the police opened the preliminary investigation early last week.

Sources said, quoting senior police officials, that the police had at least three briefings on Kim’s alleged involvement in the scandal with the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs before and after Park named Kim as vice justice minister on March 13. Cheong Wa Dae officials asked the police whether they have secured videos to prove Kim’s alleged sexual misconduct, sources said.

Both the ruling and the opposition parties urged Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs Kwak Sang-do to step down to take the responsibility for Cheong Wa Dae’s failure in its personnel verification process.

“A scandal-ridden vice justice minister was under the police’s investigation but (he was) named to the post due to the failure of (Cheong Wa Dae)’s personnel screening system,” said Saenuri spokesman Lee Sang-il.

“Cheong Wa Dae is making a series of excuses like ‘there was nothing it could do with Kim denying the allegations’ or ‘Kim should have refused to take the post if he had known that he was being investigated.’ But all of these highlight the incompetence of Cheong Wa Dae’s personnel verification system,” he said.

Questions still linger as to why Cheong Wa Dae had to push ahead with Kim’s nomination even with the police’s report on his involvement in the scandal and the rumors of him circulating for more than six months.

Officials reportedly said that they believed Kim because he strongly denied the allegations. But after his name was disclosed by news media, Cheong Wa Dae suddenly changed its stance, saying it has no reason to “protect him.”

Vice Justice Minister Kim stepped down from the post on Thursday, some hours after the police said it obtained a statement from a woman hired by a contractor to perform sexual services for the official. He denied having received sexual services in exchange for exerting his influence, but he doesn’t want to be “a burden to the new government.”

With Kim resigning from the post, the alleged sex-for-favors scandal dealt a blow to Park’s administration. It came shortly after several of Park’s nominees withdrew and as others face pressure to quit over ethical misdeeds. The following day Defense Minister-nominee Kim Byung-kwan also withdrew.

The problem is that the scandal may have more social elites suspected of peddling influence for the contractor in exchange of sexual services and other bribery. Questions also remain how much the new government could handle the impact of the scandal, which is sure to further distrust of officials, if their misconduct is confirmed.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)