Yoon Seok-yeol: "Moon Administration's Prosecutor Reform Turns Prosecutors into Subordinates"

Yoon Seok-yeol, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party, is delivering opening remarks at the Kwanhun Club invitation debate held on the 14th at the International Conference Hall of the Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by National Assembly Press Photographers Group

[Asia Economy reporters Naju-seok and Geum Bo-ryeong] "I have never seen a government that treats investigative authority like a revolutionary tool as this administration does."

On the 14th, Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate, made this remark when asked to evaluate the Moon Jae-in administration's prosecution reform during a Kwanhoon Club debate held at the Korea Press Center in Seoul. Yoon said, "If the Moon Jae-in administration's prosecution reform had succeeded, would I have become a presidential candidate?" He added, "Prosecution reform fundamentally means not taking away investigative authority to give it to the police or the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, but rather making the prosecution serve the people, ensuring that even powerful figures in the administration can be investigated without mercy, and that even the most vulnerable suspects are not taken lightly but are granted sufficient defense rights, conducting investigations without overreach. That is the direction of prosecution reform."

He continued, "The strategy for this is to distribute excessive power, but this administration's prosecution reform is about putting the prosecution under control and turning them into subordinates." He questioned, "Is the prosecution investigating the Daejang-dong case a result of prosecution reform?"

Yoon said, "When the Moon Jae-in government ran for president, didn't they campaign on prosecution reform and clearing deep-rooted evils?" He criticized, "If prosecution reform had been properly implemented, they would not be neglecting the Daejang-dong case. If their goal was to clear deep-rooted evils, they would have cleared the previous administration's evils, so why don't they clear their own?"

In response to the question, "If you become president, would you dismiss a second Yoon Seok-yeol who investigates the living powers without loyalty to you?" he answered, "If I were to dismiss such a person, the people would not leave me alone."

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