Park lawyers' bizarre acts irk judges, people

Seo Seok-gu, lawyer for President Park Geun-hye, shows Taegeukgi toward the spectator seats before a hearing for Park’s impeachment at the Constitutional Court, Seoul, while a court official is approaching to tell him to remove the flag, Feb. 14. / Yonhap

By Kim Rahn

President Park Geun-hye’s defense attorneys in her impeachment trial have been causing a stir with their unusual behavior.

Such blunders and eccentricity are not helping their client — the President — at all, but rather doing harm to her by annoying the Constitutional Court justices.

One of the lawyers, Seo Seok-gu, gained attention since the first hearing when he prayed before the hearing started.

In the hearing he also claimed the candlelit protests against Park did not represent the people and were even orchestrated by North Korean sympathizers. He compared Park to Jesus by saying: “The National Assembly emphasizes that the impeachment was passed by a majority vote, but Socrates was executed by the crowd and Jesus was nailed to a cross via a mob trial. The trap of a majority decision can threaten democracy.”

In the 13th hearing Feb. 14, he took the national flag Taegeukgi out from his bag before the hearing started. The national flag has become a symbol of Park supporters as they wave it at their anti-impeachment rallies. He unfolded the flag and flashed a grin at the spectator seats. But immediately a court official told him to remove the flag and he hurriedly put it back into his bag.

Lawyer Kim Pyung-woo, former head of the Korean Bar Association and the author of “Impeaching impeachment,” a book full of criticism about the public opinion that led to the impeachment, joined the legal representative team recently. In the 15th hearing Monday, he argued with justices, complaining about court procedures.

As the court’s acting President Lee Jung-mi was about to close the hearing around noon, Kim said he needed to say something. Lee asked what it was, and Kim said irrelevantly, “I have diabetes and I need to eat something. Can we continue the hearing after a lunch break?”

Lee then said she would give him the chance to say what he wanted to say at the next hearing. Then Kim said, “I insist that I do it now although I have to skip lunch.” As Lee did not accept this, Kim shouted: “Why do you preside over the hearing in your own way? You are unqualified to be a Constitutional Court justice!”

Even the other attorneys tried to stop him from acting this way.

Many legal experts say Kim’s behavior constituted contempt of court which could be subject to punishment. The court also warned Tuesday that it would detain anybody who causes a stir in the courtroom, targeting Kim.

Lee Joong-hwan, the chief attorney, talked about unconfirmed private relations between figures involved in the corruption scandal, which were irrelevant to Park’s impeachment causes, dragging on the hearings.

In the 10th hearing, Feb. 1, he said the scandal began when Park’s friend Choi Soon-sil had an affair with Ko Young-tae, one of Choi’s cronies. There was a rumor that Ko, who was reportedly a host bar worker, was Choi’s “toy boy.”

The lawyer made comments such as: “The man having a disgusting job has thrown the country into confusion,” and “Ko reportedly said he did not like having sex with the older woman because of money.”

Such eccentric behavior and remarks may be one of the attorneys’ tactics to delay the court decision until the acting president retires on March 13 which could raise the possibility for Park to avoid ouster.

But such unskillful tactics by high-profile legal experts may backfire, because angering justices will not be advantageous to the President but only fan negative public opinion.

“Regardless of the result of the impeachment trial, they are the President’s legal representatives. But they are far below average. I thought a hawker came in to sell a Taegeukgi,” an internet user with the ID ijon*** said.

“Will these lawyers be really helpful to the President? They will rather facilitate Park’s ouster,” another user, snip****, said.