Photo: Cho Min's Youtube advertisement for health supplements. Credit: Youtube channel of Cho Min.
As Supreme Prosecutor 검찰총장, Yoon Suk-yeol 윤석열 became a political star through his all-out war on the family of Justice Minister Cho Kuk 조국 법무부장관, Yoon’s then-boss, who was attempting to curb the power of South Korea’s prosecutors. In addition to imprisoning Cho’s wife on a tendentious charge of college admissions fraud - for allegedly forging a service certificate that played little to no role in her children’s admission to college - Yoon went after Cho’s daughter Cho Min 조민 so thoroughly that her medical school and undergraduate degrees were revoked.
Barred from pursuing a medical career, Cho Min has since found a different calling: Youtube influencer. Just four months after starting her Youtube channel, Cho has an audience of more than 100k subscribers. That number entitles her to a “Silver Button” from YouTube in recognition of 100k subscribers - but a video Cho made September 12 to celebrate the recognition was taken down by government order. South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety 식품의약안전처 took issue with Cho’s advertisement of health supplements, claiming that the appearance of a red ginseng supplement on Cho’s channel constituted false advertisement.
Nevertheless, the Cho family continues to find support among South Korea’s liberals. In the third week of September, both of the new books written by Cho Kuk and Cho Min made the bestseller list. Tears of Dice 디케의 눈물, Cho Kuk’s polemic against prosecutorial abuse, ranked third on Yes24’s weekly bestseller list, while Cho Min’s Today, Again, I Keep Going 오늘도 나아가는 중입니다 came in fifth place.
