hankyoreh

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol speaks at a roundtable on COVID-19 vaccine development at the offices of SK Bioscience in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, on April 25. (pool photo)

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol has finally broken his silence on the issue of prosecutorial reform, coming out against a bipartisan deal in the National Assembly. His change in attitude is likely connected to opposition coming from the prosecution and the public regarding a recent agreement reached between the ruling and opposition parties on the reform bill.

Disagreement within the People Power Party (PPP) was already made clear days ago, when party leader Lee Jun-seok demanded that the ruling be reconsidered, rejecting the agreement that was reached. When PPP floor leader Kweon Seong-dong dismissed the criticism, Yoon’s Chief of Staff Chang Je-won decided to get a handle on the situation on Monday.

Chang told reporters Monday that Yoon's "thoughts have not changed at all since his remarks at the time he stepped down as prosecutor general," when said that passing a bill to strip the prosecution service of its powers of investigation represented a “gross violation of the spirit of the Constitution,” and a “dereliction of the duty of the state and government to uphold the spirit of the Constitution.”

Chang’s words were an aggressive assertion of Yoon's views, a far cry from the president-elect's previous silence on the issue.

When senior-level prosecutors across Korea held a meeting on April 8 to block the ruling party’s prosecution reform bill, Yoon carefully distanced himself from the subject. At the time, Yoon said it had been “a long time” since he stopped being a prosecutor and that matters of the criminal justice system can be handled by the Ministry of Justice and the prosecution service. Yoon made it clear that he intends to focus on issues regarding the people’s livelihood as president, and not to shift his attention away to responsibilities associated with his former position as a prosecutor.

Even after the floor leaders of the ruling and opposition parties came to an agreement on a bill aimed at prosecutorial reform on Friday, Yoon’s transition team issued a message saying they “respected” the acceptance of the arbitration proposal.

However, despite the compromise between the ruling and opposition parties, as high-ranking prosecutors across the country resigned en masse and PPP supporters also began to voice their strong displeasure with the results, Yoon slowly began to change his tune.

Yoon communicated through his spokesman Bae Hyun-jin on Sunday that he was closely monitoring the ongoing situation that was “causing the people such great concern.” The next day, through Chang, he even sent a message that the movement to rid the prosecution of its investigative powers was “rife with corruption.”

Public opinion also seems to have played a major role in breaking Yoon’s silence.

A survey of 1,005 Koreans conducted by the Korea Society Opinion Institute revealed that 42.5% of respondents did not support the agreement reached by the ruling and opposition parties on prosecutorial reform. Only 34% said they thought it was a good plan. Polls have revealed that both ruling and opposition supporters hold rather negative views of the arbitration plan. (The poll was commissioned by TBS and ran April 22-23, surveying adults living in Seoul. It had a confidence level of 95%, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 points.)

An official associated with Yoon’s team told the Hankyoreh on Monday that the reason Yoon had not made any public remarks on this issue up to now was due to his status as president-elect. He reportedly did not want to be seen as interfering in the current government’s affairs or violating any rules regarding separation of powers. The official stressed that Yoon’s remarks expressing concern over the situation did not differ from the previous stance of the party on this matter.

Another official belonging to Yoon’s transition team said there were strong voices within the party concerned over Kweon's acceptance of the arbitration plan without exchanging opinions or discussing the matter with Yoon beforehand.

“As the positions of the party and Yoon have been confirmed, it seems that [the situation] will be sorted out,” the official said.

By Kim Mi-na, staff reporter

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