hankyoreh

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office. (Yonhap News)

The South Korean Justice Ministry’s prosecutorial disciplinary board met on Dec. 10, for the first time since the adoption of the country’s constitution, to review disciplinary action that Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae has requested for Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl on charges including the surveillance of judges. But the disciplinary board was unable to reach a conclusion on Thursday’s meeting and decided to hold another session on Dec. 15. Yoon, who didn’t attend the disciplinary panel’s meeting, recruited a legal team to strongly assert that the disciplinary proceedings against him are illegitimate.

The disciplinary panel convened at 10:40 am that day at the Ministry of Justice in the Gwacheon Government Complex with five of seven members present. The meeting adjourned at around 8 pm the same day. Jung Han-jung, professor of law at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, chaired the panel in lieu of Choo, who was unable to do so as the party who requested the disciplinary action. Ahn Jin, a law professor at Chonnam National University, took part as an external panel member, but another external panel member, Choi Tae-hyeong, was absent for personal reasons. Participating as internal panel members were Vice Minister and ex officio member Lee Yong-gu, senior prosecutor Shim Jae-cheol, and Shin Seong-sik, director of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office (PO) anti-corruption and organized crimes division.

As MOJ disciplinary panel proceedings are confidential, the panel members were not verified until after the day’s meeting, at which point attorney Lee Wan-gyu, who was representing Yoon, submitted a written recusal request for all four of the members apart from Shin. The grounds for the request is reportedly that the members in question had been appointed or commissioned by Choo, the party requesting the disciplinary action, and that their political orientation raised questions about unfairness in the hearing.

Yoon’s recusal request was unanimously voted down by the panel members. But Shim Jae-cheol recused himself from the panel by means of “evasion procedures.” Shim is reportedly the individual who blew the whistle on a document analyzing the political attitudes of judges, which Yoon had the SPO investigative intelligence policy official draft in February of this year. This means that Yoon’s disciplinary hearing is to take place with only four of the panel’s seven members. Yoon’s side requested a postponement, citing limited reading of the inspection records and inadequate time for review. But the disciplinary committee rejected the request and proceeded with the hearing. Ulsan District Prosecutors’ Office criminal division head Park Young-jin (formerly head of the first criminal department at the SPO) attended the panel’s session as a witness requested by Yoon, as did SPO investigative intelligence supervisor Son Joon-seong.

By Kim Tae-gyu and Jang Ye-ji, staff reporters

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]