Yoon voices concern over prosecution reform legislation

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol /Yonhap

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol hopes the ruling and opposition parties will pool their wisdom to address public concern over controversial legislation on prosecution reform, his spokesperson said Monday, voicing objections to the proposal to reduce and ultimately abolish the prosecution's investigative powers.

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DP) and the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) agreed last week to curtail 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 deprive the prosecution of all its investigative powers immediately.

The deal, however, drew unexpectedly strong criticism from the public that lawmakers colluded to shield themselves from prosecution investigations as the agreement calls for excluding crimes related to elections and public officials.

Yoon called for 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.

"I believe the Democratic Party of Korea is also well aware of the deep concerns the majority of the people have," 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 backfired.

The PPP effectively threw it out and called on the DPK to agree to a review.

"The widespread public opinion is that politicians colluded ahead of the June 1 local elections because they don't want to face investigations," PPP floor leader Kweon Seong-dong said after a party leadership meeting Monday, asking the DPK to accept a review "with an open mind."

DPK floor leader Park Hong-keun slammed the PPP for reversing its stance and vowed to press ahead with passing the bills through the National Assembly on Thursday or Friday.

"The flip-flopping of the Yoon Suk-yeol transition team and the PPP insults the National Assembly's agreement and is a provocation denying bipartisan governance," he said at a party meeting.

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.

Prosecutor General Kim Oh-soo, meanwhile, reiterated his objection to the compromise deal by the rival parties, three days after he offered to resign from his post in protest against it.

"The prosecution cannot agree on the compromise bill and clearly opposes it because the bill is something that only delays the implementation of the (original) bill scrapping the prosecution's investigative powers," Kim said in a press conference.

The chief prosecutor said abolishing the prosecution's authority to investigate could be "unconstitutional," and the people would not want to see a sharp dive in the country's ability to respond to crimes, especially those involving public officials or national elections. (Yonhap)