July 24, 2024
SEOUL – Lawmakers of the minor liberal opposition Rebuilding Korea Party proposed a bill Tuesday to launch a special counsel probe into both President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee.
This is the latest development following disputes and the prosecution’s internal strife concerning the legal enforcement institution’s decision to interrogate Kim outside of its office, in what Yoon’s political enemies have depicted as preferential treatment for the president’s wife.
Led by Rep. Park Eun-jung, a group of 13 lawmakers, mostly of the minor opposition party, proposed a new bill to look into at least eight allegations in which the lawmakers believe Yoon and Kim may have been involved.
“The prosecution is rather amplifying the public distrust as multiple criminal allegations of Yoon and Kim are growing larger,” Park said in a press briefing at the National Assembly in Seoul.
Park also criticized the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office’s decision on Saturday to interrogate first lady Kim outside of its office without prior notification to Prosecutor General Lee One-seok, comparing Kim’s 10-hour questioning with a “remote site catering service.”
“A special counsel’s investigation is the only means of restoring the principle of the rule of law,” said the lawmaker, who was also formerly a public prosecutor.
The bill centers on allegations concerning Yoon when he was South Korea’s prosecutor general, from 2019 to 2021.
These include his obstruction of official duty in the prosecution’s probe into a news reporter’s alleged coercion of a jailed man into divulging information about liberal figures in 2020, abuse of his power to collect information about judges in 2020 and the selling of family property in 2019 to a sister of Kim Man-bae, a key figure convicted of involvement in a high-profile land corruption scandal in Daejang-dong of southern Gyeonggi Province.
These suspicions surfaced as Yoon was suspended from his prosecutor general post, amid a clash with the liberal Moon Jae-in administration while Yoon had attempted to investigate Moon’s key aide, Rep. Cho Kuk.
Cho, who was already convicted in an academic credential forgery scandal to benefit his children, is the founder of the Rebuilding Korea Party. He was elected as a lawmaker in the April general election, prior to participating in the special probe bill proposal. His own case is pending with the Supreme Court.
According to the bill, there are at least five allegations revolving around Kim, including her alleged antigraft violation for her reception of a Dior bag from a civilian captured with a spy camera and her alleged involvement in illegal stock price manipulation — both of which she was interrogated for by the prosecution Saturday.
Rep. Park also asked Prosecutor General Lee to take disciplinary actions against a public official of the prosecution liable for ignorance of the chain of command in South Korea’s criminal justice.
This comes a day after the nation’s top prosecutor apologized for the neglect of principle, contrary to his emphasis that there is “no place for immunity” from criminal prosecution as he announced the prosecution’s probe into Kim’s allegations.
Lee’s remarks stirred dispute in the political arena over whether it is appropriate for the first lady, who is subject to presidential security, to undergo questioning in a normal setting. There is also debate over whether Lee would be the right person to be briefed about the situation, given that a former justice minister had deprived a top prosecutor of the power to supervise a public prosecutor on a few specific cases, including Kim’s alleged stock manipulation.
Meanwhile, a senior official of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office who joined the investigation into first lady Kim reportedly offered to step down from his position upon the news that the prosecutor general had pledged to carry out an inspection of the office under the umbrella of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.
When asked about the reports of his junior quitting his job in a show of resistance, Lee One-seok said on his way to the office Tuesday, “I have spoken enough yesterday, so I don’t have anything left to say.”
Yoon has exercised his veto power 15 times. No bill has so far overridden the presidential veto in more than two years of the Yoon presidency.
Separately, a parliamentary hearing has been underway in the National Assembly’s legislation and judiciary committee regarding an online petition with 1.4 million signatures calling for the impeachment of President Yoon. The committee vowed to summon dozens of witnesses to the National Assembly concerning the matter.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement that Prosecutor General Lee on Tuesday rejected the parliamentary committee’s request to appear at Friday’s session as a witness, adding his appearance at the hearing and his remarks there could “undermine the prosecution’s political neutrality.”