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Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl speaks during a press conference Tuesday at the Yun Bong-gil Memorial Hall in Seoul. (pool photo)

Yoon Seok-youl, former prosecutor general, announced that he plans to run for president on Tuesday. Yoon devoted most of his speech to denouncing President Moon Jae-in and emphasizing the need for power to change hands.

Yoon contended that the Moon administration is behaving like a dictatorship and that a “cartel of minority interests,” referring to cozy ties between the government and special interest groups, was fleecing the people and trampling on fairness and the rule of law. He appears to have stuffed his speech with strident criticism of the current administration to score points with hardline conservatives who despise Moon and want a new party in power.

At the same time, Yoon offered little in the way of a vision about what his administration would be like and about what kind of country he envisions. There were only nebulous promises to defend liberal democracy and reassert fairness and the rule of law.

Yoon’s platform was so creaky that it makes you wonder how seriously he’s been preparing for a presidential run during the 118 days since his resignation, aside from polishing hostile and hateful barbs aimed at the Moon administration.

Yoon’s key slogans don’t seem to adequately reflect the reality of Korean society, which has passed through industrialization and democratization to become an advanced economy. He claims that the current administration is a dictatorship that has made Korea’s liberal democracy illiberal and said that Korea needs to restore the sovereignty that has been stolen from it.

Aside from Moon’s hardcore conservative haters, it’s doubtful how many Koreans would agree with that assessment.

Furthermore, Yoon’s slogan of fairness only sounds hollow considering the many questions that have been raised about the fairness of the selective investigations that Yoon oversaw during his time as prosecutor general.

Yoon’s declaration of his presidential ambitions makes him the first prosecutor general in Korea’s constitutional history to step down in the middle of his term and jump straight into politics.

The very man who told the directors of district prosecutors’ offices around the country in February 2020 that “the political neutrality of the prosecutors is as precious as life itself” chose to personally betray the neutrality described in the Prosecutors’ Office Act.

Yoon acknowledged “the significance of the custom of former prosecutor generals not standing for elected office” in his press conference but said “I don’t think that’s an absolute principle.” Violating a value “as precious as life itself” while claiming a special exception for oneself is one of those double standards that conservatives are so fond of talking about these days.

It’s sadly comedic for Yoon to champion fairness and the rule of law while being so flippant about the rules and principles that govern the prosecution service.

This press conference is yet another reminder of the need for a thorough vetting of Yoon Seok-youl as presidential hopeful.

Yoon was certainly capable of leading the prosecution service, where he was responsible for vigorously investigating and convicting suspects of crimes. But it’s becoming ever harder to conclude that he has the practical skills or moral fiber required for the head of government, who must unify the nation and embrace the welfare of the public.

Yoon said that “people who seek to be elected to office must subject themselves to unending verification of their ethics and ability.”

Considering that specific allegations have been raised about Yoon’s behavior regarding his wife and mother-in-law while he was a low-level prosecutor, he better not try to skate by an ethical assessment of himself and his family on the grounds of privacy.

In the end, the Korean public will have to decide how to take Yoon’s presidential bid. But it would be very unfortunate if Yoon tries to win the presidency simply by criticizing the current administration without offering his own vision for the future.

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