South Korea seeks extradition of Chung Yoo-ra from Denmark

South Korean authorities said yesterday they will proceed with steps to extradite Chung Yoo-ra, the daughter of a central figure in a South Korean political scandal that has led to a parliamentary vote to impeach President Park Geun-hye.Chung is being held in Denmark after police there arrested her on Sunday in the northern city of Aalborg. Denmark’s public prosecutor said yesterday it was still awaiting a formal request from Seoul to extradite Chung and that it would take up to 30 days to address the issue.Chung will remain in custody for four weeks after having been charged with committing economic crime in South Korea, the prosecutor said Monday. Chung is the 20-year-old daughter of Choi Soon-sil, a long-time friend of Park accused of colluding with the president to pressure businesses to contribute to non-profit organisations. Both have denied wrongdoing. Choi is in detention as she undergoes trial in Seoul.“Chung has said she is willing to return to South Korea in three days if she is set free upon entry, which the government has declined to accept,” South Korea’s special prosecutor’s office said in a statement yesterday. It added there was a chance Chung, an equestrian competitor who trained in Germany, may choose to return to South Korea voluntarily.The scandal has drawn hundreds of thousands of protesters onto the streets of Seoul for weekly demonstrations and could result in Park, 64, becoming the first democratically elected South Korean leader to leave office early. Park was impeached by parliament late last year, a decision that must be upheld or rejected by the Constitutional Court. Chung’s state-appointed lawyer in Denmark, Jan Schneider, said he was likely to appeal any decision to extradite her. “I think it is disappointing Danish police and the Danish court has been drawn into a South Korean political conflict, which has nothing to do with Denmark,” he said outside the courthouse in Aalborg in video carried by Danish TV.Chung told Korean reporters at the courthouse she had come to Denmark in late September and denied having knowledge about her mother’s business transactions, and said the last time she saw Park was when she was in elementary school.“I have been advising her, as her lawyer, that it would be better for her to be investigated in South Korea,” Chung’s Korean lawyer Lee Kyung-jae told Yonhap News Agency. “She is most concerned about where her baby will be if she comes back to South Korea and is detained,” said Lee, who also represents Chung’s mother, Choi. Chung has an infant son who was among those with her when she was detained.