The Seoul bureau chief of Japan's mass-circulation daily Sankei Shimbun appeared before prosecutors for a third time Thursday for questioning about a controversial article suspected of having defamed President Park Geun Hye.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office previously grilled Tatsuya Kato, 48, on Aug. 18 and 20. At the end of August the office was poised to mete out criminal punishment, but decided to postpone a decision. With Thursday's questioning, it is possible that the investigation has entered the final stage.
A conservative civic organization filed a defamation suit against the newspaper's bureau on Aug. 9 over the article, which was carried in the Aug. 3 online edition of the newspaper.
The article, which cited rumors in the stock brokerage industry and in a South Korean newspaper, suggested Park, who is single, was not at the presidential office during a seven-hour period on the day of a deadly ferry disaster in April, and may have been secretly meeting with a recently divorced former aide.
According to sources familiar with the case, the authorities were planning to have Kato indicted without arrest, but are now giving careful consideration to the backlash such an indictment could ignite, amid concerns raised by foreign media over threats to freedom of the press. As a result, prosecutors may grant a suspension of prosecution.
Kato was supposed to take up a new posting at the newspaper's Tokyo head office from Wednesday, but has been unable to leave South Korea due to a travel ban still in place.
==Kyodo
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