Another ex-presidential aide testified in court Thursday, possibly further implicating President Park Geun-hye in the massive corruption scandal involving her confidante Choi Soon-sil at Park’s impeachment trial.

Kim Sang-yule, a former senior presidential secretary for education and culture, said President Park directly ordered him to consider selecting a company that has business interests with Choi for the 300 billion won ($254 million) construction of a sports stadium for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. 

“The president introduced Nussuli to me over the phone, saying there was a way to efficiently cut down on the budget. She told me to reconsider the options for the budget reduction by including Nussuli,” he said during the seventh hearing of President Park’s impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court. 

Nussuli, a Swiss firm, signed a business partnership deal in March 2016 with Choi’s company the Blue-K. Choi is suspected of using her ties to the president to give the state project to her corporate partner in order to seek opportunities for personal gain. 

“I heard about the company from Park for the first time. I thought that it was just part of her consistent plan to cut back on the budget,” he said. 

The company was in the end not able to secure the deal, as Cho Yang-ho, then head of the PyeongChang Olympics Organization Committee, disapproved of the plan. 

Cho, chief of Hanjin Shippng, stepped down from the post in May last year. He recently said that he had been pressured by the presidential office to quit. 

Kim also said during the hearing that President Park had ordered him to meet Jo Seong-min, head of the Blue-K, in the process of preparing for the upcoming Winter Olympic Games.  

“President Park told me to meet the sports marketing firm Blue-K, saying it may have a good idea about the state policies,” Kim said, adding he had no clue how Park knew about Blue-K. 

Kim, who served at the presidential office from late 2014 to 2016, is an uncle of Cha Eun-taek, a music video director who has been jailed on charges of abusing his ties with Choi to monopolize lucrative state-led projects and gain undue favors.

Cha allegedly peddled influence over the government in personnel appointments by using his ties to Choi and helped Kim be appointed to the presidential secretary post. 

In the afternoon hearing, ex-presidential aide Jeong Ho-seong, who, in a previous court session, admitted to leaking government documents to the civilian Choi under Park’s orders, strongly defended the president. 

“The president and I trusted Choi, so I did not think it would be an issue to share presidential documents with her,” he said, calling Choi an “invisible, non-existent” person who assists Park behind the scenes. 

Jeong, who is one of the closest aides to Park, also testified that he had not been aware of the seriousness of the sinking of the Sewol ferry until early afternoon on the day it happened. He briefed the president about it at around 2 p.m., he said.  A neglect of duty on the day of the disaster, which took place in the morning and left nearly 300 dead or missing, is one of the charges brought against Park.

He also revealed that Park owns a phone under a borrowed name and he often contacted her using the phone to avoid possible wiretapping. 

President Park was impeached by the parliament on Dec. 9 over allegations that she let Choi meddle in state affairs, colluded with Choi to extort donations from local conglomerates and failed to save lives during the 2014 ferry disaster. 

Choi, Park’s friend of 40 years, is standing trial on charges of coercion, fraud and abuse of authority, amid suspicions that she peddled influence over the cultural, sports and business sectors for her personal gain. 

The top court has until early June to decide whether to uphold or overturn Park’s impeachment.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)