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The DP must stop its senseless impeachments

Published: 01 Sep. 2024, 20:16

The Constitutional Court has rejected a legislative motion led by the opposition Democratic Party (DP) to impeach Lee Jung-seop, a senior prosecutor at the Daejeon High Prosecutors’ Office. The court’s ruling represents its second decision to turn down an impeachment motion on a sitting prosecutor after its earlier decision to reject the DP’s attempt to impeach Prosecutor An Dong-wan in a five-to-four ruling in May.

For Lee this time, the decision by the nine-member bench was unanimous. Justices Kim Ki-young and Moon Hyung-bae, known as liberal judges, also joined the dismissal, calling into question the partiality of DP-led impeachment motions against prosecutors investigating DP chief Lee Jae-myung.

In the impeachment motion against the prosecutor, the DP accused him of accessing unauthorized criminal records, violating the anti-graft law by using a resort for free, booking a golf round, and covering up for a drug investigation. But the court pointed out that the petition lacked details such as the date and subject for the alleged misbehavior and its relevance to official duties and dropped the case. In short, the impeachment motion lacked factual evidence. The DP’s impeachment against the prosecutor was suspected of having a vengeful purpose from the beginning, because Lee as a senior prosecutor at the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office had led an investigation of the DP leader for his misdeeds as Gyeonggi governor.

Yet the DP continues with its impeachment offensive. The majority party is writing up impeachment motions against Kang Baik-shin of the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office, Kim Young-cheol of Seoul Northern District Prosecutors’ Office, Park Sang-yong of the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office and Uhm Hee-joon of the Bucheon District Prosecutors’ Office. The impeachment reasons differ, but all four senior prosecutors had been involved in investigations against the DP leader.

The DP remains steadfast in its attack on prosecutors even as leftist media joins the scorn. On Aug. 14, the DP-dominating Legislative and Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Kim Young-cheol — deputy chief prosecutor of the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors’ Office — before impeaching him. But only a pro-DP prosecutor from the Daejeon District Prosecutors’ Office took the witness stand. The Constitutional Court’s latest decision should act as a brake to the DP’s reckless vendetta against prosecutors. If an impeachment motion is passed in the legislature, it suspends the impeached official’s duties until a decision by the Constitutional Court. The litigation cost the National Assembly pays to lawyers is not small, either. The DP must seriously ask itself if its self-serving impeachments are really worth it.