New Anti-Corruption Committee - Threatens Right in South Korea

(Source- 뉴스썰TV, 4.27) Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Committee. Graphic shows the composition of the seven seat committee considering referrals of suspected cases of official corruption for investigation and prosecution. The committee is the product of fast track reform legislation in the National Assembly desperately resisted by the right wing in South Korea since April 2019 but the bill passed anyway.

The image shows of the seven members of the committee, only two (far right) are designated from the opposition party. The senior member would be the Justice Minister (far left). Second from the left is the Chief of Court Administration. These two executive members are designated by the President of Korea, a democrat, and come from the ruling administration. Additionally, two additional committee members are recommended from the incumbent party, giving the seven member committee, a four member democratic majority. They are designated in blue in the diagram. One ostensibly independent member depicted in gray in the diagram, is the Chief of the Korean Attorneys Association. One can readily understand the militant and strident resistance to the prosecutorial reform bill by the conservative right. As a result, to this moment, the right wing opposition and the Chief Prosecutors office are resisting the imposition of "outside" supervisory authority and continuing their customary practice of instituting prosecutions of their opponents on the left, and stonewalling investigations of persons and institutions involved in corrupt practices and abuse of official positions. This state of affairs is sarcastically referred to by critics as the "republic of lawyers."


(Source- 뉴스썰TV, 4.27) Supreme Prosecutor Yoon Seok-yeol (right) greeting prosecutor Han Dong-hun, (far left). The latter is suspected by political opponents of being the source of an unlawful relationship with the press to arrange for political motivated indictments and prosecutions.

There are a number of investigations that are alleged to have been either been obstructed or facilitated by the Supreme Prosecutor's improper influence, depending on the family or political orientation of the accused. The first involves a series of legal cases brought by, for and against Yoon Seok-yeol's mother in law and wife, who have emerged legally unscathed over the last seventeen years while others have gone to jail in fraudulent or otherwise illegal business schemes, which reaped Yoon's family millions of dollars. The second involves the cases brought against the family of the former democratic Justice Minister Cho Guk, and the minister himself who was forced to step down. The third involves cases filed by public interest groups and the democratic National Assembly leadership against Hwang Kyo-ahn and Na Kyung-won, conservative opposition leaders for various actions either interfering in legal processes, or the functions of the National Assembly. The fourth involves alleged illegal use of the press, by the public prosecutor's office to generate public support for prosecution of political opponents, rivals or critics.

Political pundits on the left assert that but for the public health measures in effect as a result of the covid 19 epidemic, massive crowds would be gathering now in Seoul's public plazas to demand the investigation of Yoon Seok-yeol and his subordinate, Han Dong-hun, to determine whether they attempted to collude with Channel A News to frame Yoo Shi-min by soliciting perjury. Yoo is a prominent activist and highly visible media figure on the left. He is the chief executive of the No Mu-hyun Foundation. The unprecedented electoral victory by the Democratic Party on April 15, and polls showing Moon Jae-in's popularity in excess of sixty percent suggest this is true. Conservative leaders, Hwang Kyo-ahn and Na Kyung-won, were soundly defeated in the April 15 general election. One counter strategy of the United Future Party after its disastrous defeat is to initiate litigation to determine that the April 15 election results were rigged.  This seems unlikely as polls going into the election showed a rising trend of approval for Democratic President Moon Jae-in and just before the election estimated his approval at 56 to 58 percent.