Cho Myoung-gyon, former Minister of Unification, has received a finalized suspended prison sentence from the Supreme Court regarding the so-called blacklist allegations, in which he was accused of pressuring heads of public institutions appointed by the previous administration to resign during the Moon Jae-in government.

The Supreme Court's First Division (Justice Shin Sook-hee presiding) upheld the lower court's ruling on July 16, sentencing the former minister to six months in prison, suspended for one year, on charges of abuse of power.

The Supreme Court reached its conclusion three years and six months after the prosecution filed the indictment.

Cho was indicted without detention in January 2023 on charges of pressuring Son Gwang-ju, then-chairman of the North Korean Refugees Foundation (now the Korea Hana Foundation), to resign in July 2017 through then-Vice Minister of Unification Chun Hae-sung and others, despite Son having about one year left in his term.

Prosecutors determined that when the former chairman refused, Cho personally demanded his resignation, telling him to "resign quietly."

While Cho was acquitted in the first trial, the verdict was overturned to a guilty ruling in the second trial.

The second trial court determined that Cho had demanded Son's resignation through former Vice Minister Chun and others, and further personally requested that Son submit his resignation.

The first trial court had suggested the possibility that the vice minister and the director in charge acted on their own initiative, but the second trial court ruled that such procedures could not have been carried out without the approval or tacit consent of Cho.

Furthermore, unlike the first trial, which concluded that the demand for resignation did not fall under the minister's official duties and therefore did not constitute abuse of power, the second trial court recognized that the Minister of Unification at the time held general authority over the personnel matters of the North Korean Refugees Foundation chairman.

This is because the Minister of Unification possesses broad supervisory and oversight authority over the foundation and can indirectly influence the dismissal of its chairman.

Cho's side appealed the decision, but the Supreme Court found no errors in the lower court's judgment and dismissed the appeal.

In January 2023, the prosecution indicted five figures from the Moon Jae-in administration without detention, including Cho, former Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Paik운-gyu, and former Minister of Science and ICT You Young-min, on charges of forcing the resignation of public institution heads.

The prosecution determined that they pressured 19 heads of public institutions under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the Ministry of Unification to submit their resignations between September 2017 and April 2018, during the early days of the Moon Jae-in administration.

The first trials for former ministers Paik and You, as well as former Senior Presidential Secretary for Personnel Management Cho Hyun-ock and former Presidential Secretary for Personnel Management Kim Bong-jun, are currently underway.

Regarding the so-called Ministry of Environment blacklist allegations, former Minister of Environment Kim Eun-kyung and former Presidential Secretary for Balanced Personnel Shin Mi-sook were indicted in 2019, and their guilty verdicts were finalized by the Supreme Court in 2022.

(Photo: Yonhap News)