The Seoul Central District Court issued arrest warrants for former presidential Chief of Staff Kim Ki-choon and Culture Minister Cho Yoon-sun to take them into custody on Saturday.

 

During the hearing at the court, the special investigation team stressed that blacklisting artists for their political or ideological beliefs is a grave violation of the Constitution and infringement of freedom of expression.

Cho became the culture minister last year after serving as senior presidential secretary for political affairs from 2014 to 2015.

Kim, who served as presidential chief of staff from 2013 to 2015, is said to have exerted huge influence on state affairs beyond his position.

The investigators suspect that the two played key roles in the alleged creation of the list to exclude from state funding cultural figures considered unfavorable to the conservative administration. It reportedly included nearly 10,000 artists, including Cannes-winning film director Park Chan-wook, Man Booker International Prize winner Han Kang and renowned poet Ko Un.

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)