Choo Mi-ae, Minister of Justice, "Prosecutor Reform Is More Important Than Language Dignity... Wrong Direction"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae publicly rebutted criticism over her repeated remarks targeting the "Yoon Seok-yeol prosecution," stating that the criticism "misses the mark."

According to the legal community on the 28th, Minister Choo posted on her social media account on the 27th, saying, "The issue is 'collusion between prosecutors and the media.' If you aim to attack the minister's language decorum, you are mistaken."

In her post, Minister Choo said, "At first, the prosecutors and media joined forces to target Yoo Si-min personally, but when their collusion suspicions surfaced, they started targeting the Minister of Justice, who supervises prosecution work," and questioned, "Does this mean the media is that uncomfortable?"

She continued, "They may try to cover up the essence of the collusion between prosecutors and media by blaming it on the minister's political ambitions or by disparaging the minister as low-class."

Regarding reports and analyses that pointed out that the directive letter given to Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol concerning the 'Han Myeong-sook case' could not be considered a 'legal command,' she stated, "There were several instances of the minister's directives," adding, "They were given in writing and supplemented by phone calls out of respect between institutions rather than including everything in the letter. It is not difficult to understand the strange intention behind the media's claim that the minister's directive cannot be considered a command simply because it was a written document."

Minister Choo also addressed the controversy over her remarks at the 'First-term Lawmakers Innovation Forum' hosted by the Democratic Research Institute on the 25th, where she said about Prosecutor General Yoon, "If you were directed, you should follow," and "The minister issued a re-instruction because he did not listen," stating, "I accept that."

She added, "However, more important than that decorum is prosecution reform and media reform."

She argued, "Prosecutors must boldly break away from the past practice of conducting planned investigations, summoning detainees dozens or hundreds of times to coax or threaten them, fabricating evidence, and publicizing the suspect's facts through the media, thereby creating guilt before trial."

She criticized, "Until now, the media has maintained special relationships with certain prosecutors and transcribed whatever the prosecutors dictated. Such unfiltered reporting competition has produced prejudgments and biases, ignored the truth, and mercilessly destroyed human rights."

Furthermore, she emphasized, "Even without prosecutors publicizing suspect facts, exclusive and scoop reports by the media are not impossible. If it is for reform, I am not afraid to be the one sacrificed. It is time to clearly see what we must do and in which direction we should lead our society."

Below is the full text of Minister Choo's SNS post.

The issue is "collusion between prosecutors and the media." If you aim to attack the minister's language decorum, you are mistaken.

At first, the prosecutors and media joined forces to target Yoo Si-min personally, but when their collusion suspicions surfaced, they started targeting the Minister of Justice, who supervises prosecution work.

Does this mean the media is that uncomfortable?

They may try to cover up the essence of the collusion between prosecutors and media by blaming it on the minister's political ambitions or by disparaging the minister as low-class.

There were several instances of the minister's directives. They were given in writing and supplemented by phone calls out of respect between institutions rather than including everything in the letter. It is not difficult to understand the strange intention behind the media's claim that the minister's directive cannot be considered a command simply because it was a written document.

If you expect solemnity in every word spoken in a casual setting where senior party members share experiences with junior members, I accept that the reality was different from that expectation. However, more important than that decorum is prosecution reform and media reform.

Prosecutors must boldly break away from the past practice of conducting planned investigations, summoning detainees dozens or hundreds of times to coax or threaten them, fabricating evidence, and publicizing the suspect's facts through the media, thereby creating guilt before trial.

Until now, the media has maintained special relationships with certain prosecutors and transcribed whatever the prosecutors dictated. Such unfiltered reporting competition has produced prejudgments and biases, ignored the truth, and mercilessly destroyed human rights.

Even without prosecutors publicizing suspect facts, exclusive and scoop reports by the media are not impossible. We must break away from past practices. This is reform. If it is for reform, I am not afraid to be the one sacrificed. It is time to clearly see what we must do and in which direction we should lead our society.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.