People power
Prosecution reform should proceed unrelentingly
A massive rally was held, Saturday, near the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in southern Seoul in support of the embattled Justice Minister Cho Kuk and his drive to reform the prosecution.
Organizers said up to 1.5 million people gathered there, chanting slogans such as “Death to political prosecution,” “Complete prosecution reform,” “Let’s protect Cho Kuk,” and “Shame on (Prosecutor General) Yoon Seok-youl.”
The rally was largely orderly and peaceful without any violent clashes with some 1,000 anti-Cho protesters who were holding their own demonstration nearby to demand his immediate resignation.
It was reminiscent of the huge protests in 2016 and 2017 that ultimately led to the impeachment of then President Park Geun-hye and election of opposition leader Moon Jae-in as President. At every chance, President Moon has said his presidency is a byproduct of the Candlelit Revolution, describing it as the beginning of a new chapter in the nation’s democracy.
This time, they gathered to protect Minister Cho from what they called “political” prosecutors conducting an unfair investigation into him and his family with the intention to resist reform and safeguard their vested interests. Participants echoed that the prosecution’s collusive ties to politicians and the media, as seen in Cho’s case, have reached a point of ruining the country, and that the prosecutors are acting like “masters” of this country. “This country belongs to the people, not the prosecutors. I’m here to teach this to them,” a participant said in a JTBC interview.
Notably, there have been massive media reports alleging corruption involving Cho and his family and accusations by conservative lawmakers based on illegal insider information received from the prosecution. On Thursday, a Liberty Korea Party lawmaker even revealed a phone conversation Cho had with a prosecutor searching Cho’s home in Seoul three days earlier, accusing Cho of obstructing an investigation of which he is a key subject. Cho said he talked with the prosecutor via his wife’s phone only to ask him to pay attention to his wife while carrying out the search because she seemed to be unstable due to the surprise raid. She and their two children were at home, and they had to stay there until the search was done after 11 hours.
The prosecution’s elite bureau formed a large-scale team to investigate corruption allegations surrounding Cho, and there have been intensive searches and summons of related figures for the past two months. Cho’s wife was indicted of forging an award certificate to help their daughter gain college admission on the same day Cho had a National Assembly confirmation hearing on Sept. 6.
Most importantly, the prosecution has failed to present any evidence showing Cho’s direct involvement in any of the numerous suspicions despite the all-out investigation, which Cho’s supporters claim proves it is only a political witch-hunt.
Indeed, the nation’s prosecution has a shameful history of intervening in politics by leaking information it obtained in the course of conducting an investigation, and launching probes motivated by its political interests. Cho has vowed to reform the prosecution by reducing prosecutors’ power and cutting their deep-rooted collusion with politicians and the media.
Organizers of the prosecutorial reform protests say they will continue until the job is completed. The prosecution should reflect on why it is being called public enemy No. 1 in Korea.