Yoon urges lawmakers to pool wisdom over prosecution reform bill

Yoon's spokesperson Bae Hyun-jin speaks during a press briefing in Seoul, April 25. Yonhap

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol urged lawmakers Monday to pool their wisdom over a controversial bill aimed at reducing the prosecution's investigative powers, his spokesperson said.

Yoon's remark could be seen as a rejection of last Friday's compromise deal under which the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and his main opposition People Power Party (PPP) agreed to curtail the prosecution's investigation right to two types of crime ― corruption and economic ― before removing it completely.

Yoon "urged the entire political circle to reflect deeply on the right answer when it comes to defending the values of the Constitution and protecting the people's lives, and to pool their wisdom," Bae Hyun-jin, his spokesperson, said during a press briefing.

When asked if Yoon was rejecting the compromise deal, Bae simply said Yoon was watching the discussions at the National Assembly unfold.

"I believe the Democratic Party is also well aware of the deep concerns the majority of the people have regarding (the push to strip the prosecution of its investigative powers)," she said. "No politics can win against the people. And I believe the majority ruling party will not press ahead with legislation in the midst of people's concerns."

Yoon's stance has been closely watched as the president-elect is a former prosecutor general who quit his post last year in protest of 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 May 10.

In the face of fierce opposition from the PPP and the prosecution, National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug brokered a compromise deal, and both the DPK and the PPP accepted it with the aim of passing it through the National Assembly later this week.

But the compromise deal also came under criticism, with some PPP-affiliated officials especially denouncing the removal of the prosecution's right to investigate elected and public officials.

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.

In addition to reducing the number of crime types that the prosecution is allowed to investigate, the compromise deal calls for eventually scrapping the prosecution's investigative power after the capabilities of other investigative authorities improve.

It also calls for creating a special judiciary reform committee to discuss the establishment of a major crime investigative unit such as the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. (Yonhap)