President Park Geun-hye was behind the extortion of donations from local firms for the embattled K-Sports Foundation and her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil was closely involved in running the entity, according to new testimony Tuesday.

Taking the witness stand at the trial for Choi and ex-presidential aide An Chong-bum at the Seoul Central District Court, former President of the K-Sports Foundation Jung Dong-choon said he had thought the president set up the foundation and entrusted Choi with the power to manage it.
“A key state task was to promote the Korean culture wave and the foundation received donations from the Federation of Korean Industries. I thought that the cooperation from companies (at such a scale) could only be possible if the president was behind it,” he said. “I don’t think Choi unilaterally did it.”

Choi and An are standing trial on charges of forcing some 50 local firms to donate a total of 77.4 billion won ($66.4 million) to the K-Sports and Mir foundations. President Park Geun-hye is suspected to be their accomplice.

Park’s alleged involvement in the illegal fundraising campaign is one of the reasons behind her impeachment on Dec. 9. Though she has denied all charges, FKI Vice Chairman Lee Seung-cheol admitted to being under “pressure” from the presidential office to solicit corporate donations during an earlier court hearing. 

The K-Sports Foundation’s ranking official Roh Seung-il also appeared before the court and offered testimony that hinted at the presidential office’s attempt to destroy evidence and sway the investigation in its favor. 

Roh said that ex-presidential aide An handed over a two-page document telling him to offer false testimony to state prosecutors. “In the document, there was an answer sheet directing me to say ‘I don’t remember’ or ‘I don’t know’ (during questioning),” he said. 

He also revealed that Choi, who holds no official post at the foundation, had made key decisions for the entity behind the scenes. 

“Choi Soon-sil was involved in all the projects, budget execution and personnel appointments at the foundation,” he said, adding that she tried to derive benefits for the Blue-K, her German-based paper company, through the foundation. 

Choi has denied any involvement in the foundation’s activities other than recommending Jung as the president of the K-Sports Foundation. Jung was an owner of a massage parlor Choi had frequented.

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