Ministry of Justice Reports as Planned... Tensions with Yoon Transition Team Persist

On the morning of the 28th, Park Beom-gye, Minister of Justice, is answering questions from reporters while heading to the Ministry of Justice at the Government Complex Gwacheon in Gyeonggi Province.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist Reporter, Heo Kyung-jun Reporter] The Ministry of Justice is reportedly set to present the original plan as is during the afternoon briefing to the Presidential Transition Committee on the 29th. Despite having been rejected once by the Transition Committee, the content has not changed significantly, suggesting that conflicts with the committee are likely to recur.

According to legal circles on the 28th, it seems difficult for the Ministry of Justice to completely revise its stance or make major changes to the overall framework regarding President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol’s prosecution-related pledges, given Minister Park Beom-gye’s firm position.

On the morning of the same day, Minister Park met with reporters on his way to work and responded to questions about whether there had been any changes to the report over the weekend by saying, “There are no changes.” However, he added, “Regarding the abolition of the investigative command authority, we did not write ‘opposition’ in the Transition Committee report materials,” and explained, “Our bureau chiefs expressed it softly so that the committee members could hear it comfortably.”

Minister Park has maintained opposition to most of the pledges President-elect Yoon intends to pursue, including ▲abolition of the minister’s investigative command authority, ▲independence of the prosecution’s budget authority, and ▲expansion of the scope of direct investigations by prosecutors.

He stated that the minister’s investigative command authority should be maintained to realize democratic control over the prosecution and principles of responsible administration. Regarding the expansion of prosecutors’ direct investigation scope, he expressed the view that “just because the prosecution conducts more investigations does not mean it is beneficial for the prosecution,” indicating that this goes against the direction the prosecution should take as a quasi-judicial institution.

However, Minister Park holds a ‘conditional agreement’ stance on the prosecution’s budget independence issue, emphasizing the need to guarantee budget formulation independence on the premise of ensuring transparency in the execution of special activity expenses, but noting that it is a legislative matter to be decided by the National Assembly.

Like his predecessor Minister Chu Mi-ae, Minister Park has also expressed support for the prosecution’s ‘separation of investigation and prosecution’ plan. However, following Minister Park’s remarks, it appears that the ruling party’s legislative push for the establishment of a Public Prosecution Office and the ‘Geomsu Wanbak (complete removal of prosecution’s investigative authority)’ plan will not be included in the report, given the tense atmosphere with the Transition Committee.

On the evening of the 24th, when the Transition Committee briefing was canceled, Minister Park also told reporters, “There has been no special discussion (after the postponement of the briefing),” and “The report documents are all finalized.”

Given Minister Park’s firm opposition to President-elect Yoon’s pledges, it is widely expected that the Ministry of Justice will find it difficult to completely revise its stance or make major changes to the overall framework.

However, since the abolition of the minister’s investigative command authority and the prosecution’s budget independence are core judicial pledges of President-elect Yoon, the Transition Committee is unlikely to concede on these issues. In particular, regarding the minister’s investigative command authority, President-elect Yoon is likely to strongly push for its abolition, as he personally opposed former Minister Chu’s investigative command during his tenure as Prosecutor General, stating, “The Prosecutor General is not subordinate to the minister,” and claiming that former Minister Chu’s command was illegal.

President-elect Yoon expressed discomfort regarding Minister Park’s position on the 24th, questioning, “Was the prosecution reform in this government done to maintain prosecution neutrality, and after five years, is it a self-assessment that it did not work?”

Therefore, the Ministry of Justice briefing scheduled for the 29th is expected to be a session where Transition Committee members criticize the content of the briefing for conflicting with the President-elect’s pledges, possibly serving as a disciplinary occasion.

On the other hand, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, which conducted its briefing to the Transition Committee as scheduled on the 24th, reportedly took a contrasting stance by actively supporting President-elect Yoon’s pledges such as the abolition of the minister’s investigative command authority and the prosecution’s budget independence, as previously stated by Prosecutor General Kim Oh-soo.

They also reported the need to revise the ‘Regulations on Prohibition of Disclosure of Criminal Cases, etc.’ (a Ministry of Justice directive), which was enacted during former Minister Cho Kuk’s tenure to replace the existing public relations guidelines. Minister Park also agrees on the necessity of revision as long as it does not undermine the overall framework.

Meanwhile, the prosecution conducted a search and seizure at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on the 25th regarding allegations of a blacklist, and on the same day, searched Samsung Electronics headquarters and Samsung Welstory in connection with allegations of unfair support to the Samsung Group.

As President-elect Yoon’s inauguration approaches, the prosecution appears to be accelerating investigations into cases that had been dormant. When asked about the prosecution’s search and seizure of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy more than three years after receiving the complaint, Minister Park responded on his way to work, “I received the report and said, ‘That’s really fast.’”

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