Prosecutor’s letter takes a swipe at Roh

A Gwangju chief prosecutor’s criticism of President Roh Moo-hyun last Wednesday is the latest skirmish in the war of words between prosecutors and the president.
Rhee Beum-kwan, the chief prosecutor at the Gwangju High Prosecutors Office, was responding to a remark by Mr. Roh on Aug. 27 denouncing Korea’s prosecution system.
In a letter that was originally sent only to other prosecutors, Mr. Rhee wrote, “The president does not need to worry about the nation’s prosecution system. Instead, the administration should worry about itself.” His letter hit the front pages of Gwangju newspapers, which characterized it as a direct challenge to the president.
The comments by Mr. Roh two weeks ago included the assertion that the sons of former presidents Kim Dae-jung and Kim Young-sam had been investigated by prosecutors on minor charges. He added that he would not let the system go unchanged, “because the prosecutors have enormous power that is not being checked.”
Yesterday, Mr. Roh said that Mr. Rhee’s letter had no political significance. “Can you call an internally routed article a ‘mutiny’?” he asked. The president added, “We should not read too much into Mr. Rhee’s letter, since he wrote it without thoroughly knowing the background.”
But Mr. Roh also reiterated the need to maintain balance between the administration and the prosecution.
“The prosecution should neither serve the administration nor rule over it,” he said.
Reactions by prosecutors were mixed. Two letters, one written by a senior prosecutor and another by a staff member, praised Mr. Rhee for speaking out.
Others speculated that Mr. Rhee, who won the conviction of Kim Dae-jung’s third son in his earlier job at the Seoul prosecutors’ office, was infuriated by Mr. Roh’s comments, perhaps with no solid grounds. A few suggested that he had an eye cocked at a National Assembly seat in elections next April. In a telephone interview, Mr. Rhee said, “I just felt a need to communicate with junior prosecutors.”

by Kim Won-bae