Woo Byung-woo, former presidential adviser for civil affairs, allegedly peddled influence over the prosecution when it was investigating the cause of the sinking of the Sewol ferry, Korean media reported Tuesday.

Woo, who has been in hiding, is one of the key figures in the influence-peddling and corruption scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil, which led to the embattled president’s impeachment earlier this month.
Left-wing news outlet Hankyeoreh reported the then-presidential secretary phoned a prosecution team raiding the headquarters of the Coast Guard in June 2014 and pressured it not to search and seize computers in its situation room.

The computer system allegedly contained sensitive information such as phone records between the Coast Guard and presidential office at the time of the sinking of the ferry Sewol in April 2014.

As investigators from the Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office refused the call, citing the importance of the evidence, the then-prosecutor-turned-presidential aide ordered it to seek a separate warrant. That resulted in delaying the seizure of the computer server, according to the news outlet.

The news reports come amid a series of revelations implicating Woo in the influence-peddling scandal.

With an independent counsel team expected to embark on its probe into the scandal Wednesday, Woo will be grilled over his alleged role in condoning or even helping Choi meddle in state affairs and leaking confidential information about the raid on the conglomerate Lotte to Choi.

“The civil affairs presidential aide has no legal authority to instruct the investigators whether they can search or not. His call for the investigation team to stop the search constitutes abuse of authority and we will look into it,” an official from the independent counsel was quoted as saying.

The revelation about Woo’s alleged meddling in the investigation process came at a critical juncture for the Park Geun-hye administration amid growing suspicions over where the president was and what she was doing while the ferry Sewol was sinking.

The nation’s worst maritime disaster left more than 300 people, mostly students on a school trip, dead or missing, with the government’s botched rescue efforts cited as one of the major reasons.

Woo also allegedly pressured acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn to exert influence on the prosecution when Hwang was serving as justice minister. Hwang reportedly forced investigators not to charge a maritime police officer, who failed to save passengers from the sinking Sewol ferry, with professional negligence. 

Following the news reports, the Democratic Party of Korea blasted Woo for overriding the justice system.

“Using his connections in the prosecution, Woo has infringed the justice system and ridiculed the public,” Democratic Party spokesperson Park Kyung-mee said in a statement. “We urge the independent counsel to conduct a thorough probe into Woo and clarify all the suspicions.”

Woo, who has claimed that he was not able to testify “due to rules that bar him from making public comments related to his job at the presidential office,” will testify at the upcoming and last parliamentary inquiry Thursday.

After he was questioned over separate charges of embezzlement and abuse of power, he went into hiding and his whereabouts had remained unknown. Though selected as a witness, he did not appear at a Dec. 7 parliamentary inquiry into the scandal.

He faces other accusations that he embezzled money from a family-run company and that he abused his power to help his son be assigned to an easy post during his mandatory military service. Woo has denied all allegations.

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