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Han Dong-hoon, the justice minister at the time, responds to questions from lawmakers during the annual parliamentary audit in November 2023. (Yonhap)

Han Dong-hoon, one of President Yoon Suk-yeol’s key advisers and closest confidants, was officially nominated to run the ruling People Power Party’s emergency interim leadership committee on Thursday.

Han rose to prominence during the Moon Jae-in administration as the director of the now-defunct anti-corruption and violent crimes division at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, but was demoted alongside Yoon, who was prosecutor general at the time, during Yoon’s clash between then-Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae over the investigation into Cho Kuk.

After Yoon was elected president, Han resurfaced as a “star minister” and has been an effective attack dog for the current administration, engaging in sharp exchanges with the opposition during his 20-month tenure.

As Han’s name began to be floated as a possible candidate in next year’s general election, the justice minister came under fire for making statements and taking actions that seemed to violate his duty of political neutrality.

Shortly after taking office, Han sidelined prosecutors appointed by Choo and restored the Yoon faction to positions of power. By abusing Justice Ministry enforcement decrees, he nullified opposition-endorsed amendments to the Prosecutors’ Office Act and Criminal Procedure Act, which were aimed at curtailing the investigation and indictment powers of prosecutors.

The first, second, and third anti-corruption divisions of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, composed of prosecutors from the former special investigations division, zealously launched probes aimed at the opposition, including those into Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung’s alleged involvement with the Daejang development scandal, allegations involving vote-buying at the Democratic Party’s convention, and media outlets that supposedly bad-mouthed Yoon.

In the meantime, the investigation into first lady Kim Keon-hee’s involvement in the Deutsch Motors stock price manipulation case, which was handled by the second anti-corruption division, has been abandoned. Dust has been piling on the case since the indictment of former Deutsch Motors Chairperson Kwon Oh-soo two years ago, in December 2021, the last time any action was taken.

Han also seems to have no notable policy achievements under his belt. After his inauguration, Han established a team within the Justice Ministry to screen nominees for public office, but has repeatedly failed to successfully vet candidates. His pledge to establish a dedicated immigration agency, which he had vowed since his appointment as minister, has yet to be borne out.

Still, he has been praised for his proactive approach to victims of state violence. A case in point is his directive to accept a court settlement recommendation to waive delayed damages for overpaid state compensation to victims of the People’s Revolutionary Party incident.

The court’s decision to expand the eligibility for prosecutor-requested retrials of those convicted by court-martial or ordinary trial during the Jeju April 3 Incident was also praised. In the state compensation lawsuit regarding the Sewol ferry disaster, Han did not appeal the second trial’s ruling, which recognized state responsibility, stating that the issue of restoring damage to those who have been wronged “is not a matter of whether one is conservative or progressive.”

After Han’s name started to be floated for April’s general election in earnest, Han started making up to three appearances in the field a week and often made political remarks unrelated to policy, stirring controversy.

After the People Power Party gestured its readiness to recruit Han to serve as interim leader, he came under fire for making remarks unbefitting of a justice minister when he called the opposition’s push to assign a special prosecutor to the first lady “evil,” and said that suspicions that Kim Keon-hee took graft in the form of luxury items were investigated through illegal means. Han even went so far as to provide de facto guidelines for investigations into the first lady, which is not appropriate behavior for a justice minister.

“If anything I did was wrong or insufficient, it would not be because of a lack of will or responsibility, or a result of compromise, but because of a lack of ability,” Han said in his farewell speech as justice minister. “I hope I can say the same when I finish any job, no matter what it is.”

By Jeon Gwang-joon, staff reporter

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