Oceans Minister Chun Jae-soo is surrounded by reporters at Incheon Worldwide Airport, Thursday, amid allegations that he acquired bribes from the Unification Church. Korea Instances picture by Shim Hyun-chul
Oceans Minister Chun Jae-soo supplied to resign Thursday amid allegations he took bribes from the Unification Church, although he rejected the declare as “fully groundless.”
Chun expressed his intent to resign as he returned from a U.N. assembly in New York, the place South Korea and Chile have been designated as co-hosts of a U.N. ocean convention in 2028.
“As a public official, resigning from the ministerial put up and squarely responding would be the proper habits,” he instructed reporters at Incheon Worldwide Airport, west of Seoul.
“It’s a case primarily based on falsehoods, however I imagine it is going to be applicable for me to step down from my put up as oceans minister to ensure that (the federal government) to work with out faltering,” he added. “It’s an absurd however fully groundless controversy.”
Chun has been named by a former Unification Church official as certainly one of a number of ruling Democratic Celebration of Korea(DPK)-affiliated individuals who took cash and different items from the church through the administration of former President Moon Jae-in.
Yun Younger-ho, former head of the church’s international headquarters, instructed a particular counsel crew in August that the church gave two luxurious watches and tens of thousands and thousands of gained to Chun between 2018 and 2020 whereas requesting his assist with the church’s undertaking to construct an undersea tunnel connecting South Korea and Japan.
Chun was a DPK lawmaker on the time.
“There was completely no unlawful acceptance of cash or valuables,” he mentioned, including he’ll state his place within the investigation course of or at a press convention.
Yun’s testimony solely surfaced not too long ago after he disclosed it at his trial final week, accusing the particular counsel crew of conducting a biased investigation centered solely on the church’s alleged ties to the principle opposition Folks Energy Celebration affiliated with former President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Yun is standing trial on embezzlement and different prices in a corruption case linked to the previous Yoon administration.
The particular counsel crew admitted this week that it acquired such testimony from Yun however rejected allegations of bias, claiming the matter was not a part of its investigation mandate.
On Tuesday, the crew transferred the case to the police.
