What will the investigation into Park be like?

As the prosecutorial investigation into the Choi Soon-sil scandal closes in on President Park Geun-hye, attention is on the formalities of what will be the country’s first-ever interrogation of a sitting president.

Questions have emerged on two key fronts: What sort of charges will be brought against the president and how the prosecutors will deal with the unpresented investigation into an incumbent president.

The prosecutors have submitted an official request to Cheong Wa Dae to question President Park in person. They want the questioning session to take place no later than Wednesday.

For the investigation venue, the prosecutors have considered various options including Cheong Wa Dae and different places near the presidential office.

“We’re still in consultation over the date, but what’s most important is when, and the place is a secondary issue,” a senior member of the investigative team told reporters. “Our position is the questioning should take place no later than Wednesday.”

The proposed time frame appears to reflect the investigators’ efforts to untangle the relationship between Park and Choi as well as the president’s involvement in related wrongdoings before Choi’s arrest warrant expires Saturday.

In terms of the methods, with retired presidents and first ladies, the prosecution has in the past sent written forms, made visits or summoned them in person.

“A written investigation is physically not easy and takes time going back and forth between us and (Cheong Wa Dae). A face-to-face meeting is easier,” the prosecutor added.

Incumbent presidents are not subject to charges for criminal offense during their tenures. But the investigation’s findings could constitute grounds for a potential impeachment motion should the president be convicted of the accusations surrounding her.

Among the possible charges facing President Park are whether the president had abused her power to extract money from conglomerates. Park is suspected of instructing her aides to raise some 77.4 billion won ($67.4 million) and offering the money to nonprofit foundations run by Choi.

“President Park gave me detailed instructions about how to raise the money,” Ahn Chong-bum, a former senior presidential secretary for policy coordination was quoted as saying during the prosecutors’ investigation Thursday. Ahn allegedly played a key role in pressuring the business into donating the money.

If the president is found to have given instructions on those wrongdoings -- or to have been aware of them --- she would be charged with preventing the obstruction of duties and abusing her authorities as the head of the executive branch  

The prosecutors have focused its investigation on whether the president herself demanded the conglomerates donate the money when Park hosted the meeting with seven local conglomerates in July at Cheong Wa Dae.

Some legal experts noted that if the president is found to have made a promise to offer special treatment to those business leaders at the meeting, she could be convicted of receiving bribes from private entities.

In order to investigate the allegation, prosecutors have summoned business leaders who attended the meeting with Park. Among them were Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Mong-koo.

Another point of investigation is whether Park instructed her presidential aides to share confidential documents, such as Park’s presidential speeches, with her confidante Choi, who has never held a government position.

With Choi admitting to editing the presidential speeches, Jeong Ho-seong, one of Park’s closest aides, reportedly said during the investigation that he “personally gave those documents because of Choi’s relationship with the president.”

If the documents that Choi received are found to have contained sensitive information on military and diplomatic issues -- or the prosecutors find more confidential documents shared with Choi -- she could be charged for leaking secrets about national security. 

By Yeo Jun-suk (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)