A would-be South Korean minister of justice facing allegations of hypocrisy and favoritism involving his family has held a marathon 11-hour news conference in a bid to salvage his sinking reputation and nomination.
A liberal darling with an impeccable resume, law professor Cho Kuk was named last month by South Korean President Moon ae-in, a former human rights lawyer, to lead the Ministry of Justice.
A smooth confirmation was expected at first, but the process became a partisan battleground with questions over his daughter’s schooling, and relatives’ investment in a private equity fund suspected of dubious operations.
Cho on Monday bowed in apology and sat down to face about 300 reporters at 3:30pm after a scheduled parliamentary confirmation hearing was canceled due to political disagreements over the witness list.
The news conference did not finish until 2:16am yesterday.
Cho was slammed for hypocrisy when it emerged he had sent his daughter to the kind of elite high school he had criticized and she had appeared to benefit from family connections.
Cho has said such schools led to a “more unfair society.”
Cho admitted his words and actions were inconsistent, telling reporters he had “caused disappointment to young people,” but he maintained he and his family had done “nothing illegal” and refused opposition demands he withdraw from consideration.
“While I am battered [with accusations], I will do everything I can [to be confirmed],” he said.
As the encounter stretched into the early hours — there was a dinner break and other pauses — the 54-year-old’s supporters circulated images of reporters looking drowsy and condemning those they felt had asked “cheap” questions.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
RSS