Opposition parties have slammed a proposed special counsel investigation into allegations against the prosecution that could have the power to cancel criminal charges against the incumbent president.
They branded the latest push by the ruling Democratic Party of Korea an attempt to abuse its authority in order to end investigations into President Lee Jae Myung.
In a press conference Sunday People Power Party Floor Leader Rep. Song Eon-seog urged voters to pass judgment on Lee and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea.
He claimed Lee was openly calling for the special counsel to cover up his crimes, describing the move as “a presidential privilege that ordinary citizens cannot imagine.”
“It is an attempt by a police officer appointed by a thief to remove the thief’s crime,” Song said at the National Assembly. “The phenomenon of a president appointing a special counsel to clear his criminal trials goes directly against the principles of modern rule of law.”
People Power Party senior spokesperson Rep. Choi Bo-yun also said Sunday the ruling bloc was committing a “judicial coup d’etat.”
Choi added the presidential office was acquiescing to the ruling party’s move, which Choi described as “a conspiracy to a scheme to destroy the criminal justice system.”
Cho Eung-cheon, a candidate for Gyeonggi Province from the minor conservative Reform Party, said Sunday that the ruling Democratic Party was “committing judicial insurrection” in a country that already suffered the aftermath of former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s attempt to impose martial law in 2024.
“The constitutional system of the rule of law and the separation of powers will be shaken to its core, and the criminal justice (system) of South Korea will be rendered hollow,” Cho said in a press conference Sunday.
Cho also proposed a meeting of right-wing local election candidates.
Later on Sunday, the Reform Party announced that Cho would meet People Power Party candidates in the Greater Seoul Area to condemn the special counsel bill. Among them would be Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who told reporters Sunday that the scheme would lead to “democratic backsliding.”
The Democratic Party on Thursday floated a special counsel bill that would grant the counsel power to cancel indictments of Lee if the probe finds that their indictments against Lee were based on fabricated evidence.
Dozens of Democratic Party lawmakers participated in the drafting of the bill, which the Democratic Party-dominated National Assembly seeks to pass this month.
The special counsel’s probe will investigate 12 criminal cases, eight of which involved charges against Lee.
In cases that predate his election in 2025, Lee is alleged to have been involved in multiple land corruption cases and in unauthorized money transfer to North Korea. Court trials over Lee’s criminal charges have been paused since his inauguration, but the ruling Democratic Party has called on the prosecution to drop the charges because Lee was charged due to “evil-minded, politically-motivated” prosecutors.
If the new special counsel bill passes, Lee’s charges could be dropped by the special counsel that the president himself would appoint.
The ruling Democratic Party has already passed bills to undermine the power of the prosecution by splitting the prosecutors’ organization into two; indicting prosecutors or police officers for “wrongly interpreting” the law; allowing the defendant’s constitutional appeal of a Supreme Court ruling; and nearly doubling the number of Supreme Court justices.
Civic groups also voiced concerns over the recent push. On Saturday, People Making Good Laws, a civic group comprising over 230 attorneys, said in a statement the ruling party’s push not only went against the purpose of the special counsel system but was also an act that “fundamentally destroys the principles of separation of powers and checks and balances guaranteed by the Constitution.”
consnow@heraldcorp.com
