Seoul: The Supreme Court has upheld a suspended prison term for former Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon for his role in forcing the resignation of a state agency official during the administration of former President Moon Jae-in.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Cho was found guilty of abusing his power as the unification minister by demanding a resignation letter from Sohn Kwang-ju, who was the head of the Korea Hana Foundation in 2017. Sohn had been appointed during the previous government led by President Park Geun-hye and still had a year remaining in his term.

The Supreme Court finalized Cho's sentence of six months in prison, which has been suspended for a year. This decision comes 3 1/2 years after the prosecution initially indicted him. Cho was among five officials from the Moon administration who faced indictment in January 2023 for compelling the resignations of 19 state agency chiefs between September 2017 and April 2018, an incident now referred to as the "blacklist" scandal.

Other officials involved in the case include former Industry Minister Paik Un-gyu, former ICT Minister You Young-min, former senior presidential secretary for personnel affairs Cho Hyun-ock, and former presidential secretary for personnel affairs Kim Bong-joon. Their trials are currently ongoing in district courts.