Choo Mi-ae’s Son Barred from Leaving Country After Returning; Probe Resumes into Alleged Preferential Treatment in Military Leave

[Financial News] The Prosecution Office has resumed its investigation after the son of Choo Mi-ae, governor of Gyeonggi Province, returned from overseas. He had been accused of receiving preferential treatment for sick leave during his military service.
The Seoul Eastern Prosecution Office said on the 10th that it had barred Choo’s son, identified by the surname Seo, from leaving the country and resumed its investigation. He had been staying overseas and entered the country on the 4th.
The current travel ban stems from measures requested by prosecutors when Seo left the country for overseas in 2023 and his case was suspended: a request to be notified upon his return to the country and a travel ban.
Choo’s side is reportedly taking the position that the case had been “already closed with no finding of wrongdoing.”
Allegations of preferential treatment in Seo’s military leave were raised in 2019 by the Liberty Korea Party (now the People Power Party). The Liberty Korea Party alleged that Seo took sick leave during his military service, citing surgery as the reason, and that the leave was extended without prior approval as a result of pressure from Choo, who was then leader of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK).
In September 2020, the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office (now the Seoul Eastern Prosecution Office) declined to indict, finding no grounds for suspicion and saying there had been “no external pressure or solicitation.” The People Power Party appealed, but the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office also rejected the appeal in June 2022.
Later, in November of the same year, the Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office launched a new investigation in accordance with an order from the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office of the Republic of Korea (SPO) to reinvestigate. However, after Seo left the country in 2023, the case was suspended.
[email protected] An Ga-eul Reporter