Na Kyung-won: "The Corruption Investigation Office is a Democratic Party's Political Investigation Office... It Must Be Disbanded"

Some People Power Party Lawmakers Call for the Dissolution of the HCIA
HCIA's Arrest of Yoon: "Intended to Embarrass the President... Full of Political Motives"
Oh Dongwoon Criticized: "Donated Hundreds of Thousands of Won to a National Assembly Candidate While Serving as a Judge"

Some members of the People Power Party, including Representatives Na Kyung-won, Song Eon-seok, Lee Man-hee, and Kim Jeong-jae, on the 16th, condemned the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Agency (HCIA) for turning into a political investigation office serving the Democratic Party of Korea, and called for the resignation of HCIA Chief Oh Dong-woon and the dissolution of the HCIA.

At a press conference held at the National Assembly Communication Office that afternoon, Representative Na and others stated, "The arrest of President Yoon Seok-yeol, carried out despite no risk of flight and with the main related suspects already detained, is full of political intent aimed at 'embarrassing the president' and 'demonstrating the organization's presence.'"

The four lawmakers who held the press conference were involved in the 2019 Fast-Track clash incident and claimed that the HCIA had never secured political independence since its establishment. Representative Na criticized, "In 2019, the Democratic Party of Korea pushed through the mixed-member proportional representation system and the HCIA Act using the Fast-Track process. There was no bipartisan agreement. It was legislative dictatorship carried out solely by the power of seat numbers. It was the prologue to a national tragedy."

She continued, "We resisted with all our might to stop this, and as a result, 37 members of the National Assembly, party officials, and aides from both ruling and opposition parties were indicted and are still on trial. Everything we feared at the time has become reality. The complicated formula and the semi-proportional representation system with the proliferation of minor parties distorted public opinion, and the HCIA, which has degenerated into a political investigation office serving the Democratic Party, has thrown the national investigative system into chaos and become a tool for illegal political investigations, violation of the rule of law, and regime takeover."

Regarding the HCIA's process of arresting President Yoon, they also claimed it was "riddled with serious illegality." Representative Na stated, "The HCIA has no investigative authority over the crime of rebellion. Therefore, it has no authority to arrest. Nevertheless, it illegally expanded its investigative authority with the absurd logic that the arrest was for 'connected crimes discovered during the investigation of abuse of power.'"

She added, "The HCIA also has no prosecution authority over the president. According to the HCIA Act, the HCIA can directly prosecute only judges, prosecutors, and police officers of rank superintendent or higher, and for other high-ranking officials, it can only investigate and must request prosecution from the prosecution. Requesting an arrest warrant for a matter that it cannot even prosecute raises another legal controversy."

They also repeatedly opposed the HCIA's 'warrant shopping' controversy. Representative Na pointed out, "The HCIA deliberately avoided the Seoul Central District Court, its jurisdictional court, and obtained the warrant from the Western District Court, engaging in 'judge shopping and warrant shopping.' This is an evasion tactic. Moreover, the judge in question arbitrarily excluded the restrictions on search and seizure under the Criminal Procedure Act without any legal basis in the first arrest warrant."

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In addition, they mentioned issues such as the HCIA attempting to command the police regarding warrant execution despite having no police command authority, causing police backlash, controversies over violations of the Security Law, and allegations of forgery of official documents for access permission to the 55th Security Unit, emphasizing, "The HCIA, pushed through solely by numerical superiority without bipartisan agreement, has now become a monster of political investigations trampling on the rule of law."

After the press conference, Representative Na told reporters, "Looking at his background, Chief Oh is from the Human Rights Law Research Association and even donated to a candidate of the Open Democratic Party, the predecessor of the Democratic Party. He donated hundreds of thousands of won while serving as a sitting judge. Chief Oh clearly showed bias during this investigation process."

After the press conference, they planned to visit the HCIA government office in Gwacheon to meet with officials in protest of President Yoon's arrest.

On the 16th, the second day of President Yoon Seok-yeol's arrest, Odongwoon, the head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), is arriving at the CIO office in Gwacheon. Photo by Yoon Dong-ju

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