Jung Hyun-sik, former chief director of the K-Sports Foundation, said that President Park Geun-hye was behind the foundation raising large sums of donations from major conglomerates and Choi Soon-sil ran the foundation, during the impeachment trial Tuesday. 

“Choi Soon-sil and ex-presidential secretary An Chong-bum directly gave me orders (on running the foundation,)” he said. “After Choi gave me instructions, An ordered me to do the same thing one or two days later. So I came to believe (that Choi’s decision carried President Park’s intention.)”

Choi and An are both on trial for abuse of authority and coercion over allegations that they extorted donations from local conglomerates to the Mir and K-Sports foundations. President Park has been named an accomplice, one of the key reasons that led to her impeachment.
In line with a slew of testimonies pointing to Choi as their de facto owner of the foundations, Jung said that Choi had a final say in personnel appointments, projects planning and execution of the budget. 

Choi has denied any involvement in controlling the foundation. 

As Justice Kang Il-won asked him what the board of the directors did while Choi, who had no official post at the foundation, and An made key decisions for the entity, he said: “It is so embarrassing to say, but we were just like a shell.” 

Another witness Kim Jong-deok, the former culture minister arrested for creating out a blacklist of liberal cultural figures, said that the implementation of the blacklist to exclude left-wing artists from state support was one of the major polices under the Park administration. 

Park’s alleged abuse of authority to sack officials critical of the blacklist is another reason behind her impeachment. 

“The blacklist was already in place before I was appointed as the Culture Minister,” he said. Kim said he had received orders linked to personnel appointments in the cultural sector mostly from Kim Ki-choon. 

Kim Ki-choon, a former presidential chief of staff arrested for creating and managing the blacklist, did not appear Tuesday, citing his frail health. Kim said through a written submission that he would appear if demanded again after resting for a few days. 

The court plans to summon him on Feb. 20.

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