2024-08-01 05:50:51
Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok and Choi Soon-sil’s nephew Jang Si-ho
With opposition to “baseless political impeachment”
The Democratic Party of Korea and other opposition parties held a plenary session of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly on the 31st to hold a hearing on the impeachment motion against Kim Young-chul, the deputy chief prosecutor of the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors’ Office, and passed a motion to call as witnesses Ms. Kim Kun-hee, Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok, and Choi Soon-sil’s nephew Jang Si-ho. The Democratic Party claims that Prosecutor Kim “botched” the investigation into Ms. Kim’s suspicions of stock manipulation, etc. and incited Ms. Jang to give false testimony in court during the Park Geun-hye scandal. The People Power Party responded by saying, “This is an impeachment for political strife that lacks evidence.”
The opposition party submitted a motion to impeach Prosecutor Kim at the plenary session of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee on that day, and held a related hearing on the 14th to vote on the impeachment investigation plan and the motion to summon 20 witnesses, including Ms. Kim, and 5 reference persons. People Power Party lawmakers did not attend the vote on the investigation plan and voted against the request to summon witnesses.
Earlier, on the 2nd of last month, the Democratic Party had unilaterally processed the motion to refer the impeachment bill to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee against four prosecutors, including Prosecutor Kim, Kang Baek-shin, Deputy Chief Prosecutor of Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office, Seongnam Branch, Park Sang-yong, Deputy Chief Prosecutor of Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office, and Eom Hee-jun, Bucheon Branch Chief. The grounds for Prosecutor Kim’s impeachment included suspicions that he had separately investigated the “envelope money incident” at the Democratic Party’s national convention involving former Democratic Party leader Song Young-gil.
People Power Party lawmaker Park Jun-tae said, “The prosecutors who investigated the Democratic Party’s envelope scandal have been impeached,” and pointed out that this is “a politically offensive impeachment.” Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Yong-min countered, “When prosecutorial power runs wild, the National Assembly, which represents the people, must step in and discipline them.”
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office issued a statement criticizing the plan, saying, “They are going to call in the prosecutors in charge of the investigation and trial of the Democratic Party, including the envelope of money case, and the Prosecutor General as witnesses for the hearing to investigate the investigation process,” and “This is an unconstitutional procedure that drags the criminal justice process into a political dispute and undermines the principle of separation of powers under the Constitution.”
At the meeting that day, there was a heated exchange between the opposition party and Justice Minister Park Sung-jae regarding whether to request the restoration of the Prosecutor General’s investigative authority in relation to the investigation of Mrs. Kim. When Minister Park repeatedly replied that “the exclusion and restoration of investigative authority should be done on an institution-to-institution basis (not on an individual-to-institution basis),” Democratic Party lawmaker Jang Kyung-tae criticized him, saying, “You should be ashamed.” Minister Park responded by saying, “You should be ashamed.”
Reporter Ahn Gyu-young [email protected]
Reporter Heo Dong-jun [email protected]
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2024-08-01 05:50:51