Yoon Gathers Opinions on 'Unfair Command by Choo' at Prosecutor General Meeting, Likely to Exercise Right to Object

Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol is expected to decide on the 3rd whether to accept Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae's investigation directive regarding the so-called 'media-prosecution collusion' suspicion case. The Supreme Prosecutors' Office will hold meetings with high-ranking prosecutors nationwide in the morning and afternoon to discuss whether to accept Minister Choo's investigation directive. The photo shows prosecutors entering the Supreme Prosecutors' Office building that day. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy reporters Seokjin Choi and Seongpil Jo] On the 3rd, Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol convened senior prosecutors at the level of chief prosecutors nationwide to coordinate his final stance on Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae's investigation directives.

After gathering opinions from the meeting, Prosecutor General Yoon is expected to soon announce his position, including his own future course of action.

The meeting, held in the form of a roundtable rather than an official decision-making body, took place three times at 10 a.m., 2 p.m., and 4 p.m. in the large conference room on the 8th floor of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-dong, Seoul. The morning session was a meeting of high prosecutors nationwide, followed in the afternoon by meetings of chief prosecutors from the metropolitan area and provincial prosecutors' offices.

The meeting was convened to discuss whether to accept or reject Minister Choo Mi-ae's directive issued the previous day, which instructed, regarding the so-called 'prosecutor-media collusion' case, that "the Prosecutor General should not supervise the investigation," and if rejected, how to respond. It is known that many within the prosecution consider Minister Choo's directive an "unjust order," and it is highly anticipated that Prosecutor General Yoon may use the collected opinions as justification to challenge her directive.

Meanwhile, starting from 9:30 a.m. that day, the chief prosecutors arrived at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office one after another, and seemingly aware of the gravity of the situation, they did not respond to any questions from the press and proceeded directly to the conference room.

Chief Prosecutor A, ahead of attending the meeting, said, "Today is a time to exchange opinions, not to reach a conclusion," and added, "The decision will ultimately be made by the Prosecutor General, but since this is not a matter that can be resolved through emotional reactions, we need to gather consensus on what would be logical and reasonable."

On the other hand, another Chief Prosecutor B showed a somewhat agitated reaction, saying, "Before considering whether the Prosecutor General has the right to object to the Minister's directive, shouldn't we clearly state that we cannot comply with unjust orders?"

On the 2nd, Minister Choo ordered the suspension of the special investigation advisory panel procedure for the prosecutor-media collusion investigation and directed the independent investigation team, which does not fall under the supervision of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, to conduct the investigation independently.

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