Park Beom-gye "Yoon Seok-yeol and Choi Jae-hyung May Be Suspected of Partiality in Cases Handled During Tenure"

Minister of Justice Park Beom-gye [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] Park Beom-gye, Minister of Justice, pointed out that "the purity of motives and political neutrality in the cases handled during their tenure could be questioned" regarding Yoon Seok-yeol, a leading opposition presidential candidate and former Prosecutor General, and Choi Jae-hyung, former Chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection.

On the afternoon of the 12th, Minister Park appeared on YTN's 'News Evening' and stated, "It raises the question of whether it is desirable for the country that successors operate the organization thinking that if they do well, they can directly become presidential candidates."

Regarding Yoon's mention that he was pressured to resign during his tenure, Park said, "This is the first time I have heard of that," adding, "Since he has already set his intentions and come out, I wonder if it would be better not to talk too much about past matters."

In response to Yoon's claim that the February prosecution personnel reshuffle was discussed with Shin Hyun-soo, then Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs at the Blue House, but Minister Park announced it abruptly, Park rebutted, "(The discussion between the Prosecutor General and the Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs about personnel matters) is not allowed according to the legal knowledge I have."

He continued, "Regarding personnel matters, I met twice with former Prosecutor General Yoon and already explained that this time there would be only a very small number of personnel changes and that Lee Sung-yoon, then Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, would remain in office."

Regarding the joint inspection results announced by the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, Park said, "Overall, there were quite a lot of disclosures of suspect information," and added, "Based on the data, we will create and announce a manual that prosecutors directly in charge of investigations must follow."

On the suspicion that Chief Prosecutor Lee Sung-yoon's indictment was leaked, he expressed dissatisfaction as a minister, saying, "I am dissatisfied as a minister about why the Supreme Prosecutors' Office is not conducting a swift inspection," and added, "(Prosecutor General Kim Oh-soo) should watch the broadcast and proceed quickly."

Regarding conflicts between the prosecution and the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) during various case handling processes, he analyzed, "The background of the CIO's establishment was the prosecution protecting their own members," and said, "Considering that issues like sponsor prosecutors still exist, the CIO's opinions have some merit." However, he added, "That said, it is also unreasonable for the prosecution to conduct investigations while the CIO only makes judgments," and "We need to coordinate, and if that fails, the laws may need to be amended."

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