Concerns Over Internal Distrust More Than Foreign Pressure... Civic Group Files Additional Charges of Neglect of Duty Against Roh
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min, Legal Affairs Specialist Reporter Choi Seok-jin] Prosecutor General Kim Oh-soo took a day off on Friday, the 18th, two days after dismissing resignation rumors on the 16th. The legal community believes that during the three days including the day off and the weekend, he organized his stance regarding his position. The focus is more on ‘endurance or consolidation’ rather than finding an exit.
It is considered unlikely that the People Power Party will again call for Kim’s resignation. Urging the Prosecutor General, who has more than a year left in his term, to resign from the next ruling party is both external pressure and a threat to the independence of the prosecution.
Kim’s concern lies more in the ‘distrust’ within the prosecution than in political external pressures. As of the morning of the 21st, there are no posts on the prosecution’s internal network ‘Eprose’ defending Kim, who is under resignation pressure, or criticizing politicians who pressure him. Even the post by Park Cheol-wan, head of the Yongin branch of the Judicial Research and Training Institute, on the 17th calling for a discussion to protect the prosecution’s political neutrality and independence, has had little response. This atmosphere differs from before when prosecutors’ angry posts spread like wildfire whenever there was undue political interference or pressure on the Prosecutor General or prosecution investigations. A lawyer with a prosecution background said, "This is evidence that the majority of current prosecutors are either indifferent to Kim’s position or distrust his abilities and oppose his reappointment."
Field prosecutors believe that distrust in Kim began with last year’s ‘Lee Sung-yoon indictment leak case.’ In May last year, the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials took internal messenger data from prosecutors who indicted Lee Sung-yoon, head of the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office, to check for indictment leaks. This sparked controversy over illegal searches and subcontracted inspections. Despite this, Kim remained silent, drawing prosecutors’ resentment that "the Prosecutor General is not fulfilling his role to block external pressures."
Regarding No Jeong-hee, Chairperson of the Central Election Commission, who is under resignation pressure, civic groups continue to file complaints. The civic group Legal Action for Restoring the Rule of Law (Beopse-ryeon) filed a complaint with the prosecution on the 7th accusing Chairperson No of mismanaging the early voting for the 20th presidential election (abuse of authority and violation of the Public Official Election Act), and on the 21st filed an additional complaint for dereliction of duty. Lee Jong-bae, head of Beopse-ryeon, argued, "Although the election commission chairperson is a part-time position, not even coming to work on the early voting day amid a surge in COVID-19 cases and expected voting chaos clearly constitutes dereliction of duty."
The earlier complaint case against Chairperson No is known to have been transferred from the prosecution to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and is expected to be passed on to the Southern Gyeonggi Police Agency.
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