Ruling party pushes to pass prosecution reform legislation despite opposition
The ruling Democratic Party floor leader Park Hong-keun speaks during a party meeting, April 26. Yonhap
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is pushing to pass controversial legislation on reducing and ultimately removing the prosecution's investigative powers, vowing to act alone if the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) refuses to endorse a compromise deal they reached last week.
The DPK aims to complete deliberations on the legislation during a subcommittee meeting of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee, Tuesday, and possibly pass the bills through a plenary committee session the same day.
If it succeeds, the party hopes National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug will convene a plenary session as early as Wednesday to pass the bills.
The ruling party has justified its move by claiming the PPP broke its promise when it demanded a review of the compromise deal that called for curtailing the prosecution's investigative right to two types of crime ― corruption and economic ― before removing it completely.
The agreement represented a breakthrough compromise between the rival parties that had sparred fiercely for weeks over the DPK's headlong push for legislation that would immediately deprive the prosecution of all investigative powers.
The deal, however, drew unexpectedly strong criticism from the public that lawmakers were colluding to shield themselves from prosecution investigations as the agreement calls for excluding crimes related to elections and public officials from prosecution probes.
"In order to follow the compromise agreement that the National Assembly declared before the people, the Democratic Party of Korea held a legislation subcommittee meeting until late yesterday and wrote the provisions of the Prosecutors' Office Act and the Criminal Procedure Act," DPK floor leader Park Hong-keun said at a party meeting Tuesday, referring to amendments that would reduce the prosecution's powers.
"Deliberations at the subcommittee level will be completed today," he said.
Monday's subcommittee meeting reportedly made little progress as PPP lawmakers pored over the details of each provision and the prosecution stressed the "unconstitutionality" of separating their investigative powers from their right to indict.
The DPK has cast the PPP's concern over the exclusion of election and public officials' crimes as a stalling tactic aimed at portraying it as a tyrant ahead of the June 1 local elections.
President Moon Jae-in told reporters Monday he thought the compromise deal brokered by Speaker Park was done well.
Hours earlier, President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol had called for the entire political community to reflect deeply on what was right in order to defend the Constitution and protect the people.
Yoon's stance had been closely watched as the president-elect is a former prosecutor general who quit his post last year to protest the current administration's push to strip the prosecution of its investigative powers in the name of reform.
Since Yoon's election last month, the DPK has pushed to use its majority in the National Assembly to pass the necessary amendments to the Prosecutors' Office Act and the Criminal Procedure Act, and to get them signed into law before Yoon could get a chance to veto them after taking office on May 10.
The DPK has argued the reform measures are necessary to address longstanding concerns about the prosecution's abuse of power for political and other purposes.
Opponents claim it would run counter to the Constitution and hurt ordinary people while protecting members of the outgoing Moon Jae-in administration from potential criminal investigations.
Yoon's chief of staff told reporters Tuesday, "I believe President Moon Jae-in will exercise his veto."
"I cannot help but ask if shaking up the criminal justice system and rushing it toward the end of President Moon's term is in line with the people's wishes," he said. (Yonhap)