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Floral wreaths supporting Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl in front of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office on Dec. 27. (Yonhap News)

The ruling Democratic Party has been at a loss after a court decision effectively overturned disciplinary measures against Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl. President Moon Jae-in moved to put out the fire on Dec. 25 with a message stating that he “respect[s] the court’s decision.” But for the past several days, members of the Democratic Party have been coming out with an uncoordinated mix of hardline statements and calls for Yoon’s impeachment, the complete abolition of prosecutors’ investigation authority, and an end to the “judges’ cartel.”

Analysts attribute the situation to deeply rooted perceptions of a “coordinated attack” by the conservative media and political parties and the prosecutors — despite the Democratic Party’s overwhelming majority of 174 National Assembly seats — as well as a gesture toward the party’s more militant supporters.

Since the disciplinary measures against Yoon were suspended, the official position settled on by the Democratic Party has been to commence “Season 2” of its prosecutorial reform campaign. The day after Yoon’s suspension request was accepted, party leader Lee Nak-yon and floor leader Kim Tae-nyeon joined party members in the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee for a closed-door meeting where they decided to push institutional reforms to the prosecutors. To achieve this, they set plans for developing the party’s power institution task force into a task force for prosecutorial reforms.

But the party at large has been sounding a quite different note. Individual lawmakers have been aggressive with their rhetoric. For a second straight day on Dec. 27, lawmaker Kim Du-kwan argued that the Constitutional Court could be “persuaded” with the launch of impeachment proceedings against Yoon and a special prosecutor’s investigation into his family or a Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) investigation into his individual criminal allegations. Fellow lawmaker Kim Sung-hwan posted a Facebook message claiming that “some judges appear quite perturbed about their cartel of vested interests being busted.”

“The over-politicization of courts and prosecutors is an attempt to fundamentally undermine democracy. We now need to raise our candles online in protest against this vast cartel of vested interests,” he urged.

Shortly after Moon’s message about “respecting the court’s decision,” Lee Nak-yon posted his own Facebook message noting the public’s “growing fears that the Republic of Korea is excessively controlled by the judiciary.”

“I can hear the people complaining about how the judicialization of politics and politicization of the judiciary have crossed over into the danger zone,” he said, in an apparent indirect criticism of the court’s “political” decision.

Many within the Democratic Party saw the situation as the result of lockstep movements by conservative media and jurists together with the People Power Party (PPP). It’s an attitude clearly evident in remarks by Kim Du-kwan, who referred to the prosecutors as the “vanguard in a powerful alliance of vested interests uniting the prosecutors, media, and conservative political parties.”

A second-term lawmaker said, “While I don’t necessarily agree that the ruling was the ‘result of a cartel,’ there are broad-based sympathies within the party for the position that such a cartel does exist and operate.” Analysts in and around the party suggested the party leadership and lawmakers were gesturing toward the militant supporters ahead of a series of major elections: next year’s by-election candidate race, the next party convention, and the 2022 presidential race.

Some observers are suggesting the simultaneous calls for institutional reforms could diminish trust, even if they do not go so far as to call for Yoon’s impeachment. Examples include lawmaker Hwang Un-ha, who called for adopting “improving judicial official selection methods now that it has been seen that indictments and trials cannot be left to the determinations of prosecutors and judges.” Party Spokesman Kang Sun-woo announced plans to “improve the system to fully separate investigation and indictment powers.”

The calls go above and beyond adjustments to prosecutor and police investigation authority that were passed by Democratic lawmakers early this year and enter effect in January. Some are inevitably questioning whether the public can really be reassured with pledges to revamp the system before the hard-won existing changes have even gone into effect.

This situation may explain why some members of the Democratic Party have been calling instead for a “cool-headed focus on institutional reforms.” In a Dec. 26 Facebook message, party Spokesperson Huh Young stressed, “We also need to control our emotions.”

“There is a chance that an impeachment [of Yoon] will end up being thrown out by the Constitutional Court. We can’t afford to give any more ammunition or allow any more of a backlash.”

Former National Assembly Deputy Speaker Lee Seok-hyeon posted his own Facebook message saying, “Rather than an impeachment with a lot of sound and fury but no substance, something that the National Assembly can get to work on is the separation of investigation powers and selection of a conscientious CIO director.”

Park Su-hyeon, director of the party’s public relations and communications committee and a former Blue House spokesperson, wrote on his Facebook page, “The views within the party are too confusing and disorderly, with the calls for impeaching the prosecutor general and impeaching the judge responsible for the ruling or going after them through the CIO.”

“Prosecution reforms! Now is the time for legislation, and for the National Assembly and Democratic Party,” he continued.

“But the most important things right now are vaccines and livelihoods,” he stressed.

By Kim Won-chul, staff reporter

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