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| Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon enters his office at the Government Complex in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday, before the Constitutional Court makes its ruling on the prosecution reform bill's legitimacy. Yonhap |
By Ko Dong-hwan
Even after the Constitutional Court decided, Thursday, that a prosecution reform bill pushed by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) last year is legally effective despite procedural flaws, the country's two major parties remain split, criticizing each other based on the ruling.
In June 2022, Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon and six prosecutors filed a joint petition to ask the court to review the reform bill's constitutionality, claiming it infringed on prosecutors' investigative rights guaranteed in the Constitution.
However, the court ruled that investigative power should not be limited to a single government agency, giving an implied nod to the DPK's passage of the bill even though it also recognized procedural flaws during the passage of the legislation at the National Assembly, such as violating the deliberation and voting rights of the ruling party lawmakers.
Rep. Kim Mi-ae, the spokesperson for the ruling People Power Party (PPP), said Friday that the court "regretfully disregarded" how the main opposition party, while ignoring the PPP, had single-handedly passed the bill by taking advantage of its parliamentary majority.
The lawmaker singled out a point from the judges' remarks that the court viewed the DPK railroading the passage of the controversial bill was illegal and against the Constitution.
Rep. Kim also criticized the DPK for demanding the prosecutor-turned-justice minister step down bearing the responsibility for having objected the bill that transfers to the police a portion of the investigative authority of prosecutors. She said the main opposition party should "be apologetic first about how they had illegally pushed the bill through without the PPP's agreement before demanding Minister Han's resignation."
Referring to the procedural flaws that the Constitutional Court pointed out, Rep. Jun Joo-hyae of the PPP criticized the DPK, saying that six newly proposed bills at the Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, which is headed by a DPK lawmaker, are also "being unfairly pushed through" by the DPK based on its majority.
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| The Democratic Party of Korea floor leader Rep. Park Hong-keun, center, speaks about the Constitutional Court's ruling on the prosecution reform bill at the National Assembly in Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap |
"The DPK must listen to the court's ruling and realize that they must stop pushing bills using their majority seats and start passing the bills through legitimate discussions and fair voting," she said.
Meanwhile, DPK floor leader Rep. Park Hong-keun banked on the court's acceptance of the prosecution reform bill to continue condemning the prosecutor-turned-President Yoon Suk Yeol and the PPP for attempting to preserve prosecutors' power and put the elite class on top of the country's hierarchy of governance.
"Han was intoxicated by his own power and through the country into chaos to secure a lasting victory for the incumbent prosecutor-friendly government," Park said, Friday. He previously said on Thursday following the court's ruling that it is time for the country's prosecutors to return to "normalcy" by dividing their key vested rights of investigation and prosecution with the country's police force.
In response to the DPK's calls for resignation, the justice minister told reporters, Friday, that he was unhappy with the ruling. He also released a statement vowing to "boldly fight the impeachment move" likely to be pursued by the DPK. He said it is his job to protect citizens from "wrongfully created laws that are unfairly pushed by the DPK only to protect the politicians on their side."
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