Kim Seung-won, the nominee for justice minister, said on the 3rd that he has no intention of seeking to drop the indictments against President Lee Jae-myung. "The justice minister has no direct authority over this, and I have no intention of directing the prosecutor general to do so," Kim said. He also stressed that "under the law, the trial prosecutor holds the authority to maintain a prosecution in an individual case. I will respect that authority." Kim is a ruling-party lawmaker aligned with the president who once served as co-chair of a group of legislators formed to push for dropping the charges against Lee and for a parliamentary investigation. His shift in tone appears aimed at reducing risks at his confirmation hearing, given the intensity of opposition criticism that his nomination amounts to a self-protection appointment by the president. But it also signals how substantial the legal objections and public resistance to dropping the charges have become. That is likely why his predecessor, Chung Sung-ho, offered to resign as justice minister.
The Democratic Party of Korea has long argued that prosecutors fabricated their investigations into cases involving Lee, including the Ssangbangwool remittances to North Korea and alleged corruption in the Daejang-dong development project. In April the party pushed for a parliamentary investigation, then introduced a bill for a special counsel to probe alleged fabricated indictments, and has gone as far as calling for the charges to be withdrawn. Yet with Kim now stating that he will respect prosecutors' authority to maintain their cases, criticism that the ruling party overreached in pressuring the prosecution service is gaining force. Even Cho Kuk, head of the Rebuilding Korea Party's policy research institute and a figure on the broader pro-government side, warned on the 1st that pushing through a withdrawal of the charges against Lee would end in political and legal failure.
The ruling party should now withdraw the special counsel bill, which has drawn criticism as groundwork for dropping the charges. A bill that hands an investigation touching on the president himself to a special counsel appointed by the president, and grants that counsel the power to withdraw indictments, carries constitutional questions from the outset. If the ruling party forces through a special counsel that defies common sense, Lee's approval rating could fall further. The Democratic Party should first ease public anger by cleaning up the confusion in the judicial system deepened by prosecution reform legislation it pushed through without sufficient deliberation or preparation. Kim, for his part, should state more publicly and firmly that he respects the trial prosecutor's authority to maintain a prosecution, in order to address public distrust of the justice system. It goes without saying that he must also give a full account of lobbying allegations surrounding text messages he sent to the head of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.
