hankyoreh

The Blue House. (Hankyoreh archives)

For several days before the meeting of a disciplinary board that will decide the fate of Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, the Blue House has been emphasizing the need for the “procedural legitimacy” of the disciplinary proceedings.

On Dec. 3, the Blue House released orders from South Korean President Moon Jae-in that stressed the importance of “securing procedural legitimacy and impartiality in the affairs of the disciplinary committee.” The Blue House’s actions seem designed to minimize the potential for conflict during the board’s review and thereby reduce the controversy that will erupt following its decision.

After Moon’s message was made public, Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae agreed to Yoon’s request for a delay of the board’s deliberations, pushing the board’s meeting back from Dec. 4 to Dec. 10.

“President Moon said that the disciplinary board should do even more to ensure procedural legitimacy and impartiality in light of the gravity of the matter. He also said that not having Vice Justice Minister Lee Yong-gu, whom Moon recently appointed, serve as acting chair of the board will help to secure legitimacy and impartiality,” Blue House Spokesperson Kang Min-seok said during the daily briefing on Thursday afternoon.

This was the first in-person briefing on a major topic that the Blue House has organized in nine days. The Blue House had been sending out press statements and fielding reporters’ questions in individual phone calls.

Moon reportedly made his remarks about the importance of ensuring the procedural legitimacy of the disciplinary proceedings during lunch with Blue House aides on Thursday.

“Some reports in the media seem to assume that the disciplinary board has already reached a decision. Rather than making such assumptions, we ask you to remain calm and watch how things play out,” Kang said.

“When asked about the president’s position on the disciplinary proceedings against Yoon, Blue House officials have already said the president cannot give any guidelines about the disciplinary proceedings. We will maintain the position of not giving guidelines while the disciplinary board is convening,” the spokesperson said.

This position was wholly consistent with a message the Blue House sent out the day before.

“President Moon isn’t interested in the direction [of the disciplinary board’s decision]. The appointment of the vice minister doesn’t mean that the president intends to orchestrate Yoon’s dismissal from office; it means he intends to move forward with the scheduled disciplinary board meeting by filling the vacant position,” a high-ranking official at the Blue House told the Hankyoreh over the phone on Wednesday.

“They’ll give any necessary explanation an adequate hearing, and they’ll also be empowered to delay their decision. The president’s intention is for the rest of the proceedings to be conducted fairly, given the issues that have come up,” this official stressed.

But Moon and the Blue House’s repeated emphasis on the procedural legitimacy of the disciplinary proceedings shouldn’t be taken as a signal that Yoon will only face mild discipline or be cleared of the charges against him. If the disciplinary board fails to enforce a punishment amounting to a dismissal or rejects the charges altogether, it would not only weaken the position of Choo, who spearheaded the disciplinary proceedings, but also inevitably cause Moon to take heat for not stopping her.

For that reason, the Blue House’s emphasis on procedural legitimacy is something of an inoculation aimed at forestalling a major political crisis for the administration, given the strong public opposition to Yoon being dismissed from office. And considering Choo and Yoon’s no-holds-barred brawl, the Blue House has few other options at its disposal.

“We’ve reached a point where accommodation and compromise are no longer possible. The only option now is to let the proceedings run their course at the disciplinary board and to finalize institutional reform, including the independent office for investigating corruption among high-ranking officials,” said Lee Gwan-hu, an analyst at the Gyeongnam Institute, during a phone call with the Hankyoreh.

The actions by the Blue House also appear to reflect the results of a poll published that morning, showing that Moon’s approval ratings had tanked.

In a poll of 1,508 voters around the country — conducted by Real Meter for three days, starting on Nov. 30 — the percentage of respondents who think Moon is doing a good job as president fell by 6.4 points from the previous week to 37.4%. Commissioned by TBS, the poll had a 95% reliability and a sample error of ±2.5 percentage points.

The Moon administration crashed through the 40% line — which had been regarded as Moon’s base level of support — to its lowest point since Moon took office.

By Lee Wan and Kim Won-chul, staff reporters

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