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Democratic Party floor leader Park Hong-keun speaks at a meeting of confirmation hearing officials at the National Assembly on April 13. (Yonhap News)

The Democratic Party issued a blistering criticism of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s announcement Wednesday that he was nominating Han Dong-hoon, a close associate of his during his time as a prosecutor, to serve as minister of justice.

The party lambasted the selection as an example of “appointment terrorism” meant to “install a loyal servant rather than achieving fairness.”

Following its decision Tuesday to make the separation of the prosecutors’ investigative powers part of its party platform, the party appears likely to use Han’s selection as an impetus for speeding up its efforts to pass related legislation.

In a public meeting of confirmation hearing officials at the National Assembly that day, Democratic Party floor leader Park Hong-keun said, “This isn’t just an appointment catastrophe — this is an act of ‘appointment terrorism’ against the public.”

“[Yoon] may talk about making this a ‘country of fairness and common sense’ every time he opens his mouth, but this is a case of him installing a ‘loyal servant’ rather than achieving fairness,” he added.

“This [appointment] casts aside all common sense and beggars belief,” he said.

Park went on to say, “After getting rid of the position of Blue House senior secretary for civil affairs as a way of ‘letting go of presidential authority,’ now [Yoon] wants to have his nominee Han Dong-hoon perform the roles of both minister of justice and civil affairs secretary.”

“People are already talking about how former Vice [Justice] Minister Kim Hak-eui — who was involved in a scandal involving sexual bribery at a villa — would have been a better choice than Han Dong-hoon,” he continued.

“If [Yoon] has even a whisper of a thought of popular unity and collaborative governance, he should immediately withdraw Han Dong-hoon’s nomination,” he urged.

Moreover, during a briefing on Wednesday, Oh Yeong-hwan, floor spokesperson for the Democratic Party, called Yoon’s decision “a declaration to privatize the prosecution’s power,” adding, “The unreasonable acquittal of senior prosecutor Han Dong-hoon can only be seen as a preliminary step towards [his] nomination as minister of justice.” Han was recently cleared of charges related to blackmailing allegations.

The Democratic Party, which officially decided to push forward with prosecutorial reform legislation during a meeting Tuesday, was already concerned with the need to speed this process up. With Yoon choosing Han as his justice minister nominee, however, the push appears to have gained some momentum.

According to one long-term Democratic Party lawmaker, even though there were claims that the Democratic Party’s sudden push for prosecutorial reform in April was “outrageous” or a “defensive” measure, the decision “could no longer be seen that way given recent developments.”

“Originally, the Democratic Party should be on the defensive, but [now] there is something to attack,” another party official said, adding that Yoon had shot the issue of stripping the prosecution’s investigative powers to the top of their agenda.

With Han’s nomination, the Democratic Party has further strengthened its will to get its prosecution reform bill through the National Assembly before the end of the month.

An all-out war is expected at Han’s confirmation hearing. “A justification has now arisen for the need to deal with the issue of the prosecution’s investigative power,” an official in the Democratic Party’s leadership said. The official added that all eyes will be on Han’s nomination during the upcoming confirmation hearings for Yoon’s ministerial nominees, adding that the Democrats are likely to focus all their “firepower” on Han.

The Justice Party, which criticized the Democratic Party’s official adoption of prosecution reform as a party platform the day prior, criticized Yoon's selection of Han, saying, “The president is not a swordsman.”

Jang Tae-soo, spokesperson for the Justice Party, raised the question of whether Yoon’s appointment of Han was a way of the president-elect choosing a “warrior that could fight against the Democratic Party’s quest to strip prosecutors of their investigative powers.”

“If this is the case, then [they] have betrayed the trust of the citizens who expected the minister of justice to be responsible for the establishment of legal order that supports people's livelihood, the protection of human rights, and the realization of justice,” Jang said.

Jang said it was “very regrettable” that, through Han’s nomination, Yoon was “acting as if still the prosecutor-general by going down the road of an all-out war with the Democratic Party to prevent the reform of the prosecution, instead of focusing on his responsibilities as president. “

By Song Chae Kyung-hwa, staff reporter

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