With President Park Guen-hye named a suspect in the influence-peddling case, prosecutors leading the investigation said Monday that they would look into allegations of bribery involving the president.

The special investigation team Sunday indicted Park’s confidante Choi Soon-sil and former presidential aide An Chong-bum for their involvement in coercing corporations to donate funds to the Mir and K-sports foundations, which are suspected of being a cover for channeling funds to Choi.

But the prosecution left out bribery charges against the government, citing the lack of evidence.

While the arraignment said the companies had “no choice” but to make the donations, it has been suspected that the 77.4 billion won ($65.8 million) of donations were essentially bribes from the biggest and most powerful corporations in the country.

The opposition has upped their calls for Park to be investigated for bribery.

“The president had a private meeting with corporate chiefs and demanded that they make contributions to the foundations, and provided favors for them. ... How is (this) different from the bribery cases in the past of former Presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo?” said Rep. Kim Boo-kyun of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea.

Over 600,000 citizens gathered in Seoul for an anti-Park protest Saturday, calling for the corporations to be punished and saying they should not be viewed as victims of coercion.

While Choi and An have been indicted for coercing money from corporations, it was termed “abuse of power.”

“We were very concerned about the matter, but the principal of bribery is “illegal solicitation and it was vague,” said an official from the prosecution.

One case involved Lotte Group donating 7 billion won to the K-Sports Foundation. It has been alleged that the money was meant to stop an investigation into the conglomerate, a suspicion further fueled by the fact that the foundation returned the money to Lotte just before the investigators commenced an all-out probe.

Hyundai Motor Group, which donated 12.8 billion won and inked multibillion-won deals with companies controlled by Choi’s associates, is also suspected of receiving benefits last year.

Under Korean criminal law, abuse of power can be punished by up to five years in prison while bribery is punishable by at least 10 years in prison if the bribe was 100 million won or more.

Park has vowed not to cooperate with the investigation, claiming that the charges against her are baseless.

Officials from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said Monday that it is realistically difficult to take Park into custody, as the Constitution does not allow Park to be prosecuted.

With the investigation limited, the prosecution is expected to focus on proving the bribery charges.

Prosecutor General Kim Soo-nam has reportedly ordered investigators to apply bribery charges to whoever necessary, if evidence is found.

The investigators continued to close in on Park by requesting an arrest warrant for former Senior Presidential Secretary for Economic Affairs Cho Won-dong. Cho is suspected of pressuring CJ Group to dismiss its vice chairwoman, Lee Mie-kyung.

He reportedly told investigators he was following Park’s orders.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)