Yoo Cheol-hwan, Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission, "Disciplinary action for members demanding Yoon's dismissal will be decided with executives"

Judged as a Violation of the Duty of Political Neutrality

Yoo Cheol-hwan, Chairman of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, explained that the disciplinary action against Standing Commissioner Han Sam-seok was decided "after discussion with the executives."

Yoo Cheol-hwan, Chairman of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission. Photo by Kim Hyun-min

At a regular briefing held on the 28th, Chairman Yoo responded to reporters' questions asking, "Did you directly instruct the Audit Officer to discipline Standing Commissioner Han?" by saying, "We saw the possibility of violating the duty of political neutrality, so the executives discussed it together and gave the instruction." He added, "There is a clause on the duty of political neutrality in the Code of Conduct for Public Officials, and since the public is roughly split between support and opposition to impeachment, no central government official has ever issued a statement risking their position, so we made that judgment."

Earlier, Standing Commissioner Han, along with two non-standing commissioners, issued a statement criticizing the December 3 emergency martial law and calling for the dismissal of President Yoon. In response, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission requested the Ministry of Personnel Management on the 13th to impose severe disciplinary action against Standing Commissioner Han, stating that "he undermined the Commission's credibility by advocating punishment of the appointing authority and gave the impression of bias toward a particular political faction."

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