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A legal mind clashing with public sentiment

Published: 09 Oct. 2024, 20:18

OH HYUN-SEOK
The author is a political news reporter of the JoongAng Ilbo.

“There’s no regulation to punish her, and clearly, there is no charge,” claimed the presidential office on Oct. 3 over the first lady’s suspicious acceptance of a luxury bag from a mysterious pastor. The presidential office’s claim may be true in terms of legal principles. The Improper Solicitation and Graft Act doesn’t stipulate punishment of a public official’s spouse. A spouse of an official will not be punished for receiving a luxury bag worth more than 3 million won ($2,232). President Yoon Suk Yeol, a public official, can be punished only when his spouse’s receipt of money and goods is related to his duties. After reviewing precedents, the prosecution decided to not indict the first lady because the gift was not related to the president’s job.

Adhering to legal principles cannot make the argument convincing. Since the anti-graft act took effect in 2016, Korean people couldn’t give their children’s teachers a gift for Teachers’ Day. However, even after the wife of the incumbent president received a luxury bag as a gift, the presidential office found nothing wrong with it. That doesn’t make sense. On the next day, a special motion to investigate the first lady was put to a revote — and at least four members of the governing party voted for the motion. A first-term lawmaker even said, “The deviation from the party line resulted from the attitude of the presidential office.”

The legal mind of not caring about public opinion and only respecting legal principles may be a virtue for a prosecutor but is a disqualifying factor for a politician. The essence of politics is to listen to the people. Moreover, the public sentiment is especially strict on the families of those in power. Whenever a corruption allegation arose over family members of major politicians, including former presidents Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung, the leaders voluntarily gave up the protection of the law.

When Kim Hong-gul, Kim Dae-jung’s youngest son who was staying in the United States, was allegedly involved in corruption in 2002, President Kim ordered his son, through his aide, to faithfully comply with the investigation and accept punishment if he was found guilty. It took only two days for him to return and get investigated by prosecutors. As the president is also a human, he must have felt heartbroken. In his memoir, President Kim wrote that he felt like “falling into an endless pit several times a day.”

Former president Kim Young-sam was even more strict. After the Central Investigation Department of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office failed to prove charges against his second son Kim Hyun-chul even after interrogating him for 26 hours in February 1997, the president blamed the prosecutor general for not thoroughly investigating his son. “It must have been good news to the president as a father, but the president wondered if the investigation results were strong enough to convince the people,” recalled Oh In-hwan, then-minister of public information, according to a memoir by the minister. The Blue House replaced the chief of the Central Investigation Department in the top prosecutors’ office and allowed the prosecution to detain the incumbent president’s son for a separate investigation. Sometimes, heads of state must endure pain to meet the public’s expectations.

On Oct. 8, the opposition Democratic Party (DP) submitted a request for a standing independent counsel investigation into Kim’s case. The DP also proposed a revision to the National Assembly rules to exclude the governing party from the process of recommending independent counsel candidates. The party also warned that it will propose another motion to appoint a standing special in accordance with legal principles. The DP, holding a majority in the legislature, certainly has more cards in its hands than the governing party.