Yoon surrogate decries 'liberal bias' at Constitutional Court as impeachment trial continues
Published: 19 Feb. 2025, 17:33
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- MICHAEL LEE
- [email protected]
Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI
![President Yoon Suk Yeol's unofficial spokesman Seok Dong-hyun speaks during a press conference held in an office building in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Feb. 19. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/02/19/97314647-f871-48e5-a1dc-a9bf58bdc12c.jpg)
President Yoon Suk Yeol's unofficial spokesman Seok Dong-hyun speaks during a press conference held in an office building in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Feb. 19. [YONHAP]
President Yoon Suk Yeol’s unofficial spokesperson Seok Dong-hyun accused members of the country’s judiciary and law enforcement agencies of liberal bias in their handling of his ongoing impeachment and criminal trials at a press conference on Wednesday.
Seok, a lawyer and longtime acquaintance of the president, focused his ire on the Constitutional Court’s acting Chief Justice Moon Hyung-bae, whom he characterized as unfairly disregarding concerns from Yoon’s lawyers over procedural issues in his impeachment trial.
Seok accused Moon of “going on an extreme power trip” by rejecting an objection from one of Yoon’s lawyers, Cho Dae-hyun, regarding the court’s decision to admit the prosecution’s interrogation record of the country’s police chief as evidence in the trial.
Though the recently amended Criminal Procedure Act prohibits interrogation records written by a prosecutor from being admitted as evidence in a trial without the consent of the individual who was questioned, Moon told Cho, a former Constitutional Court justice, that this law does not fully apply to an impeachment trial.
Seok also accused the state prosecution service of keeping Yoon in illegal detention by indicting him one day after the date his lawyers claimed his arrest warrant expired.
The Seoul Western District Court approved a formal arrest warrant against Yoon on insurrection charges on Jan. 19, four days after the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) took him into custody with a detention warrant issued by the same court.
Yoon’s lawyers argue the arrest warrant expired at midnight on Jan. 25, but prosecutors believe it was valid until Jan. 27, allowing them to keep Yoon at the Seoul Detention Center during his criminal trial.
Seok alleged that the liberal leanings of Moon, CIO chief Oh Dong-woon and the Seoul Western District Court judges who approved the two warrants against Yoon are apparent in their shared membership in a left-leaning lawyers’ association, whose Korean name translates to “Our Law Research Society” in English.
The association was founded in 1988 by judges demanding a complete overhaul of the judiciary amid the country’s transition to democracy.
Membership in the group, which is currently headed by Moon, is viewed by court observers as an indicator of a judge’s political affiliation.
![President Yoon Suk Yeol's unofficial spokesman Seok Dong-hyun, right, speaks during a press conference held in an office building in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Feb. 19. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/02/19/904a5ca3-9ef9-45fd-b04f-04646e1d910e.jpg)
President Yoon Suk Yeol's unofficial spokesman Seok Dong-hyun, right, speaks during a press conference held in an office building in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Feb. 19. [YONHAP]
Seok also clarified that the “major decision” Yoon’s lawyers warned they could undertake if they perceive the court as managing the trial unfairly refers to the possibility they could resign from the case en masse.
Seok denied that any of the actions being contemplated by Yoon’s lawyers includes the president’s resignation from office before the court announces its verdict regarding his impeachment.
The president is due to appear at the Seoul Central District Court at 10 a.m. Thursday for the first preliminary hearing of his criminal trial on insurrection charges.
He is also expected to attend the tenth hearing of his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court five hours later.
Security has been heightened around the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, since Wednesday morning.
BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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