Candidates all agree on reducing president's power
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In the left photo, People’s Party presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo responds to supporters during a campaign speech in front of Mokpo Station in South Jeolla Province, Monday. Democratic Party of Korea candidate Moon Jae-in, in the right photo, unveils his pledges concerning the housing market during a press conference at the party’s office on Yeouido, southern Seoul, Monday. / Yonhap
By Kim Hyo-jin
All presidential candidates have agreed that presidential power should be limited and public authoritative bodies be reformed, heralding a shakeup of the power structure in the next administration.
They shared the need to reform the current “imperial presidential system” but differed on the details of the measures in the third televised debate, Sunday.
Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said the role of prime minister should be strengthened, indicating that the current system hinges too much on the will of the next president.
“We should decentralize presidential power while the prime minister should shoulder bigger responsibility and hold more rights,” he said, referring to the reality where the prime minister’s authority remains titular.
The Constitution states that a prime minister has the authority to suggest the appointment and dismissal of Cabinet members but this has ended up as a mere procedural right.
Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party has been more vocal on the need to revise the Constitution. He said, “Too much authority given to the president should be minimized and kept in check through a constitutional revision.”
Yoo Seong-min of the Bareun Party said he would reduce the size of the presidential office. “I will not have senior presidential secretaries and be only served by secretaries,” he said.
Sim Sang-jung of the progressive Justice Party stressed the need to improve transparency in the state management system, saying, “I think the people want to know what the president and Cheong Wa Dae does.”
Over the reform of the prosecution and the intelligence agency, candidates agreed on this.
Moon suggested an independent investigative body to look into corruption cases involving senior government officials to better monitor the prosecution.
This is aligned with his party’s move to pass a bill that would enable a new supervisory force to investigate high-level public officials, including prosecutors, judges, lawmakers and civil servants with vice minister-level or higher ranks, at the request of a parliamentary negotiating bloc.
Moon vowed to allow the police independent investigative rights. According to the Criminal Procedure Act, the police can start and proceed with an investigation but cannot pursue it to a conclusion without the prosecution's permission. Only prosecutors can seek court warrants for physical detention, search and seizures and arrests, causing a decades-long turf war between the prosecution and police.
The leading candidate vowed to redistribute investigative and prosecutorial powers so the prosecution is only in charge of indictments and the police can exert full power of investigation.
Ahn and Sim echoed opinions similar to Moon’s. They also agreed with Moon on limiting the scope of the National Intelligence Service’s (NIS) domestic activities though Ahn did not clarify his plans to abolish the agency’s domestic department.
Moon said, “I plan to abolish its department for domestic intelligence and restructure the agency as an intelligence-gathering body only in charge of foreign security affairs,” while Ahn did not go further than saying, “Its intervention in domestic politics should be banned.”
Hong and Yoo remained poles apart with the liberal candidates on restructuring the NIS. Yoo claimed the NIS should be allowed to collect domestic intelligence but its activities should be limited to spies and potential terrorists. Meanwhile, Hong expanded on this argument, saying, “It should rather strengthen investigations in the country to root out North Korea followers.”
Hong opposed the plan to set up an independent investigative body targeting prosecutors, saying he will instead support independence of the prosecution by appointing a figure from outside the body as its head. He stood against the remaining contenders over separating investigative power, saying sharing it between the prosecution and the police will enable them to hold each other in check.