Geum Tae-seop: "Moon lacks understanding of power agencies' nature... Public Corruption Investigation Office is a deterioration"

Former lawmaker Geum Tae-seop, who left the Democratic Party of Korea, is expressing his views on the 'Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO)'. Geum strongly criticized the 'CIO' promoted by the Moon Jae-in administration as a bad law. Photo by YouTube channel 'House TV' video capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-eun] Former lawmaker Geum Tae-seop, who left the Democratic Party of Korea, commented on the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Agency (HCIA), saying, "I do not want to believe that President Moon Jae-in has malicious motives, but I think he may not fully understand the nature of power institutions."

On the 14th, on the YouTube channel 'House TV' in the program 'O Shin-hwan's Direct Q&A,' Geum said, "If you create a power institution with good intentions, can the members act with good intentions and neutrality?" and added, "This is nonsense."

Geum hypothesized, "What if the HCIA existed during the Trump administration?" and argued, "When designing a system, there must be safeguards to prevent any president from crossing the line or abusing power." He further criticized, "The HCIA is just called HCIA, but it is currently the same as the prosecution. The HCIA aims to create a stronger prosecution on our side, which is a complete deterioration."

Additionally, according to the amendment to the HCIA Act passed by the National Assembly plenary session on the 10th, the qualification for HCIA prosecutors was relaxed from "holding a lawyer's license for more than 10 years" to "holding a lawyer's license for more than 7 years." Regarding this, Geum said, "Doesn't this mean they intend to fill the HCIA with people they want rather than professionals?" and claimed, "They are trying to fill it with people from groups like Minbyun, so they gave up professionalism without any solid grounds."

He continued, "Since it is a very powerful institution, it should have professionalism, but they have created a dangerous situation where only bias exists," and criticized, "Looking at the outcome, it seems they are trying to create a prosecution that can be used at will, not a controlled prosecution."

Geum also said, "President Moon Jae-in said, 'The HCIA is not a prosecution reform measure but an anti-corruption investigation agency.' If that was the case, it should have been created as an investigative agency," and argued, "Then the prosecution would have something to say. Since the prosecution cannot have both investigative and prosecutorial powers, it is inconsistent to take away investigative powers from the prosecution but give all of them to the HCIA."

Geum mentioned the necessity of prosecution reform, saying, "The Blue House cannot ignore the prosecution, which is a powerful institution. If the prosecution organization is not controlled, it can fall into organizational selfishness, which is dangerous. It is very difficult to create a powerful institution and then appoint personnel neutrally."

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