Incumbent and former presidential secretaries defended President Park Geun-hye during her impeachment trial Wednesday, denying allegations of her purported failure to respond to the 2014 ferry disaster and her confidante Choi Soon-sil’s meddling in state affairs. 

During the 10th hearing, presided over by acting Chief Justice Lee Jung-mi, Kim Kyou-hyun, presidential secretary for foreign affairs and security, denied Park’s responsibility in the failure to rescue more people during the sinking of the Sewol ferry, which claimed more than 300 lives.

Kim put the blame on maritime police officers who failed to brief the presidential secretariat in time, the ferry company which he said was obsessed with making profits, and the captain who abandoned the ship without taking necessary measures. 

“At around 9:23 a.m., the ferry was already listing at 45 to 50 degrees. Scientifically, the golden time for rescuing the passengers was by 9:30 a.m.,” he said. “At the time, we did not know the gravity of the accident as we received little information (from the maritime police). We briefed the president through a written report for the first time at 10 a.m.”

“In advanced countries, disasters are dealt with at the scene, I have never heard that the head of the state take responsibility (for such an accident),” he said, citing the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US in 2001 and Paris terror attacks in 2015.

Asked by Justice Kim Yi-su why the president stayed in her residence instead of seeking to tackle the national crisis, Kim said: “Things would have not changed even if she came to the situation room.” 

Kim also dismissed allegations that Park’s confidante Choi Soon-sil, the central figure in the corruption and influence-peddling scandal that triggered Park’s impeachment, intervened in editing policy drafts and key speeches.

“There is no room for a third party to intervene in editing diplomatic policies,” he said, calling it “baseless.” But he agreed that revealing such confidential documents or the president’s schedules to a third party was “inappropriate.”

Other witnesses -- former presidential secretary for state affairs planning Yoo Min-bong and South Korea’s Ambassador to France Mo Chul-min -- also appeared before the court to testify, claiming no knowledge of Choi and her alleged meddling in state affairs.

Asked about the allegations that Choi even ordered the presidential secretary Jeong Ho-seong to hold a Cabinet meeting, Yoo said there is “no room” for an outsider to peddle influence or pursue self-interest. 

Mo, who served as secretary for presidential education and cultural affairs, offered testimonies hinting at Park’s role in personnel management in the Culture Ministry. Park is suspected of sacking two government officials who wrote up an audit report unfavorable to Choi’s daughter and dressage player Chung Yoo-ra. 

Mo said that Park had named the two officials as “bad people.” “It is rare that the president herself mentions names of director-level officials and order a personnel transfer,” he said.

During the hearing, Park’s lawyers again expressed concerns over ex-Chief Justice Park Han-chul’s earlier call for the ruling on whether to unseat or reinstate the president to be made by March 13, saying that setting such a deadline can raise “serious questions” over the fairness of the trial. 

Park’s lawyers asked the court to summon 15 more witnesses to her impeachment trial, a move critics denounced as an attempt to prolong the proceedings. They also asked the court to appoint a new court chief to guarantee sufficient time for Park’s defense rights.

Park was stripped of substantial executive powers but remains immune from criminal liability, which many see as the reason behind her delaying tactics. 

Among the witnesses they asked for is Ko Young-tae, Choi Soon-sil’s now-estranged confidante and an ex-director of The Blue-K, a German-based paper company owned by Choi. Ko has offered testimonies implicating Choi and Park for coercing donations from conglomerates.

Park and Choi have denied all the allegations. 

“The scandal surfaced as Choi Soon-sil, Park’s ‘invisible’ friend of 40 years, had an affair with Ko. Ko learned about Choi’s close relationship with Park and tried to exploit it to pursue their personal benefits. As they failed to do it, they maliciously distorted the case,” Park’s lawyer Lee Joong-hwan said. 

Rep. Kwon Seong-dong, the head of the parliamentary judiciary committee, urged Park to stop trying to delay the proceedings for the sake of the people. “If Park continues to delay the court proceedings, it would only mean that she wants to save her life regardless of the prolonged vacuum in state affairs, which is far from being patriotic,” Kwon said. 

Following the departure of ex-Chief Justice Park a day earlier, the acting Chief Justice Lee reiterated the court’s determination to reach a verdict through fair and strict proceedings. 

“We feel the great responsibility to proceed with the significant trial without problems despite the absence of the chief justice,” Lee said. “The legitimacy of the ruling will be guaranteed when the procedures’ fairness and strictness in the trial are guaranteed.”

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)