hankyoreh

By Kim Won-chul, Lee Jeong-yeon and Song Ho-kyun, staff reporters

Recent decisions by the leadership of the prosecutors are provoking a backlash from inside the ranks, with prosecutors in the special investigation department of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office posting criticism on the prosecution’s internal network.

One controversial issue was the prosecutor general’s decision to ask the Ministry of Justice to take harsh disciplinary measures against Yun Seok-yeol, 53, chief of the Yeoju office. Yun was removed from his position as head of the investigation into the National Intelligence Service (NIS)’s interference in last December’s presidential election.

The other issue was the prosecutors’ decision not to discipline Cho Yeong-gon, 55, chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors‘ Office, who is suspected of obstructed Yun’s team’s investigation.

The recent internal audit carried out by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office has raised doubts over whether the prosecutors will be able to thoroughly investigate allegations that the NIS was using Twitter to interfere in the election.

Kim Seon-gyu, 44, a prosecutor in the No. 2 special investigation department with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, wrote a post on Nov. 10 on e-Pros, the prosecutors’ internal communication network. Kim demanded that plans to suspend or dock the pay of prosecutors on the team investigating the NIS be revoked. The recent internal probe, Kim said, “brings dishonor on the prosecutors.”

“It is doubtful whether the actions of the NIS investigators are really deserving of harsh punishment,” Kim said. “Instead, we ought to be disciplining the people who betrayed their convictions as prosecutors and their spirit of service to the Korean people when they made decisions and gave orders that violated law and conscience.”

Kim argued in effect that it is not the special team of prosecutors who argued for a compulsory investigation in order to explore allegations that NIS agents were tweeting about the election, but rather the high-ranking prosecutors who prevented them from carrying out that investigation, that ought to be disciplined.

During the parliamentary audit of the Seoul Public Prosecutors’ Office on Oct. 21 carried out by the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, Yun reported that Cho had told him, “Why would you want to help the opposition? When you’re the boss here, you can do as you like.”

“It’s not right to obey illegal directives,” Yun said.

“Prosecutors have the authority to direct and supervise their subordinates so that they can correct them when they make a mistake. They aren’t given that authority so they can obstruct investigations. This case is clearly an example of prosecutors’ abusing their authority,” one high-ranking prosecutor said on condition of anonymity.

“The fact that they are disciplining Yun despite these facts suggests that they are trying to send a message to the prosecutors that they will not tolerate this kind of independent investigation again.”

“I’m not sure whether anyone has really looked into the question of whether compulsory investigation [of NIS agents] was necessary, as Yun believed, and was blocked by his higher-ups or whether the compulsory investigation was unnecessary,” another source at the prosecutors said, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

“If those matters are not clearly explained, the results of the internal audit will remain controversial,” the same source said.

There is also increasing criticism from civil society that the disciplinary action is biased. “This disciplinary action sends the prosecutors as a whole a strong message that they should take the wishes of the government into account when they work on their investigation. The Blue House and the Ministry of Justice must retract the disciplinary measures right away, bearing in mind public opposition to these measures,” said Park Geun-yong, secretary-general of cooperation at People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD).

“We have a serious problem when the people who carry out an investigation as law and conscience demands are punished and the people who tell them not to investigate these cases are let off the hook,” said Lee Jae-hwa, vice chair of the judicial committee for MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society.

“A special prosecutor should be appointed to investigate how Justice Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, Seoul Chief Prosecutor Cho Yeon-gon, and Lee Jin-han, another senior prosecutor at the Seoul office, have abused their authority and been derelict in their duty.”

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