ED Clearing ex-DPK lawmaker of aides abuse allegations

Independent lawmaker Kang Sun-woo arrives as a suspect at Seoul Central Court, March 3. Korea Times file

Rep. Kang Sun-woo, currently in custody, was cleared of allegations stemming from complaints filed last year for her alleged abuse of aides. In June last year, when she was a lawmaker of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), her nomination for President Lee Jae Myung's first gender equality and family minister stirred up allegations that she was abusing aides, bringing her under heightened public scrutiny at parliamentary hearings. After her nomination was withdrawn, she eventually left the DPK and continued her term as an independent lawmaker.

Her alleged abuse of parliamentary aides entailed asking them to clean her home, including the taking out the trash and repairing the bidet, as well as ostracizing aides while threatening to make it hard to get other jobs in the future among other things, cementing her public image as arrogant and authoritarian. Civic groups filed various complaints against her, including for violations of the Labor Standards Act, abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights. The police dismissed these complaints, saying that aides did not provide enough details for the investigation.

Kang was also cleared of receiving a total of 20 million won ($13,969) in political funds from Ssangbangwool founder Kim Sung-tae and its vice chairman, while the two company executives had their cases referred to prosecutors for investigation.

While Kang remains in custody for a separate case of allegedly receiving 100 million won from former Seoul Metropolitan Council member Kim Kyung in return for a party nomination for the 2022 local elections, the clearing of these other cases raises questions about impartiality and justice.

Rep. Han Dong-hoon, an independent lawmaker formerly affiliated with the People Power Party, questioned how the providers of political funds had their cases referred for investigation but not the recipient. His public question drew attention to the revision of the Crimininal Procedures Act that would take away the prosecution's power to request supplementary investigations when the results of a police investigation are considered to be unfair.

That both Kang and Han, now independent lawmakers, were formerly affiliated with the liberal and conservative political blocs respectively may well point to a partisan battle. Yet the newly revised Criminal Procedures Act, set to go into effect in October, will leave little room for complainants to refute police decisions. The prosecution will also be heavily restructured and many of its investigative powers will be handed to an investigation agency dedicated to serious crimes.

The treatment of Kang — a legislator formerly affiliated with the ruling party — illustrates what may happen under the new prosecutorial system where the balance of power regarding investigations is tilted toward the police.

While the reform of the prosecution has been a pledge of the DPK, which enjoys a majority in the National Assembly, President Lee has expressed his opposition to completely abolishing the prosecution's supplementary investigation powers. Nevertheless, he has aligned with the ruling party and signaled that he does not plan to use his veto to send the legislation back to the Assembly.

Meanwhile, approval ratings for the president have dipped, in combination with other factors such as turbulence in stock markets and a recently announced real estate taxing policy. An Aug. 3 Realmeter poll commissioned by the EKN newspaper saw positive assessments of Lee's performance standing at 45.9 percent of all respondents, while negative assessments of the president's performance rose to 50.5 percent. The president and the DPK bear the full responsibility for the reform.

The prosecution has a legacy of dominance with its powers to investigate and indict. Yet a reform so sweeping in its scale and speed can inevitably overlook the victims of crime, the exact people the reform intends to protect. In any reform of the prosecution, the lofty intention of improving criminal proceedings for all citizens should not be compromised.