"Yoon Seok-yeol Assassination" vs "Restoring Judicial Trust" Debate Over 'Yoon Candidacy Ban Law' Controversy

"Prosecutors' Office, Binding by Law Due to Lack of Disciplinary Committee" Opposition Criticism Pours In
Choi Kang-wook "As Expected, All About Yoon... Different Reasons for Preparing the Bill" Rebuttal

Choi Kang-wook, leader of the Open Democratic Party, is holding a press conference on the bill to partially amend the Prosecutors' Office Act and the Court Organization Act at the National Assembly Communication Office on the 11th. / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Juhyung] Controversy has erupted in the political sphere over the partial amendment to the Prosecutors' Office Act and the Court Organization Act proposed by Choi Kang-wook, leader of the Open Democratic Party. The bill, which restricts current prosecutors and judges from running for public office for one year after retirement, has raised suspicions in the opposition that it is effectively targeting Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl.

On the 11th, Choi held a press conference at the National Assembly Communication Office along with party members Kim Jin-ae and Kang Min-jung, announcing the proposal of the bill.

According to the current Public Official Election Act, judges and prosecutors, who are national public officials, must resign at least 90 days before the election date to run for office. However, the core of the amendment proposed by Choi is that candidates must resign one year before the election to be eligible to run.

Regarding this, Choi explained, "Due to the blatant political activities of the Prosecutor General and some prosecutors currently taking place, national division and disruption of state affairs are causing harm to the people. We intend to cut off prosecutorial politics and restore judicial trust by restricting prosecutors and judges who dream of becoming politicians from running for office for one year after retirement, thereby enhancing the fairness and neutrality of investigations and judicial procedures."

Former Saenuri Party lawmaker Park Min-sik is holding a press conference to announce his candidacy for the Busan mayoral by-election next year at the Busan City Council briefing room on the morning of the 9th of last month. / Photo by Yonhap News

However, the opposition has reacted against the bill, claiming it is effectively a 'Yoon Seok-youl Candidacy Ban Law.'

Park Min-sik, a former Saenuri Party (predecessor of the People Power Party) lawmaker who officially declared his candidacy for the upcoming Busan mayoral by-election, wrote on Facebook that day, "The law banning Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl from running for president is a trademark of a coup regime," and added, "The very act of proposing the Yoon Seok-youl candidacy ban law immediately after passing the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Office (HOCI) Act was part of the original scenario."

He continued, "Even after trying to remove (Yoon) through the HOCI and disciplinary committee, they are still uneasy, so their intention is to legally bind him so they can sleep soundly," calling it "the final chapter of 'killing Yoon Seok-youl.'"

He further stated, "Dictatorial regimes always shackle political activities. They must silence the opposition political elites who are a thorn in their side and tightly bind their bodies," and pointed out, "Think about the measures taken by the new military regime during the May 18 Gwangju Uprising against politicians like former Presidents Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung."

Kim Cheol-geun, chairman of the People Power Party's Seoul Gangseo-byeong district, also criticized on Facebook that day, "Is there any particular reason to require only prosecutors and judges to resign from their positions at least one year before public elections?" He said, "This clearly violates the 'right to equality' in our constitution. It's too unreasonable, so it would be better to stop."

He added, "I don't know if this is to create a law specifically to block Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl from running or to make him resign quickly, but it's ridiculous," criticizing, "They act like people desperate to drive Yoon out of the political arena."

Representative Choi holding a press conference at the National Assembly Communication Office on the 11th. / Photo by Yonhap News

In response to such criticism from the opposition, Choi rebutted, saying, "As expected, it remains just 'all roads lead to Yoon'."

In a post on his Facebook that day, Choi sarcastically pointed out, "If Mr. Yoon, who is worried, wants to run, there is still plenty of time," and added, "It's not like the prosecution would deliberately miscalculate the dates."

He then shared an article related to the defamation trial of the late Father Cho Bi-o involving former President Chun Doo-hwan, stating, "Unfortunately, the decisive reason for preparing the bill is as shown in the following article."

In the article, Choi highlighted that Jang Dong-hyuk, former chief judge of the Gwangju District Court, who was in charge of the trial of the former president's case, resigned on January 10th to run for the April 15 general election while the trial was ongoing.

Jang later ran as the United Future Party (predecessor of the People Power Party) candidate for Daejeon Yuseong Gap in the last general election but lost to Cho Seung-rae of the Democratic Party of Korea and currently serves as the chairman of the People Power Party's Daejeon Metropolitan City Party.

Regarding this, Choi said, "Please pay attention to what happened that day and which party he was nominated by," and added, "If you search a little about the related articles, you can quickly see how much the fairness of the trial could have been shaken and how much this important trial was delayed."

He emphasized, "Even in bias, a minimum level of sincerity is required," and stressed, "The reason for having fixed-term public officials is to maintain 'political neutrality.'"

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