By The Straits Times | Created at 2025-01-07 09:59:29 | Updated at 2025-01-08 10:59:42
1 day ago
SEOUL - The Democratic Party of Korea is pushing for a criminal investigation of Mr Choi Sang-mok, the deputy prime minister who became acting president less than two weeks ago, over the failed attempt by investigative authorities to arrest suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol.
The Democratic Party on Jan 7 filed a criminal complaint with the police against Mr Choi, accusing him of negligence and dereliction of duty for not cooperating with the efforts of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) to arrest Mr Yoon last week.
The CIO and police aborted their attempt to arrest Mr Yoon on Jan 3 after a five-hour standoff with the president’s guards and protesters who were there to protect the president at the presidential compound in Yongsan-gu, central Seoul.
The Democratic Party argues that Mr Choi should have cooperated with the CIO, an anti-corruption investigation agency formed during the previous Moon Jae-in administration, and ordered the presidential guards to make way as the investigators and the police tried to arrest Mr Yoon.
Rep Park Chan-dae, the Democratic Party floor leader, said on Jan 7 that Mr Choi “allowed lawlessness to prevail by taking no action against the presidential guards who were obstructing justice.”
In a press conference on criminal complaint against Mr Choi on Jan 7, Rep. Kim Min-seok, who sits on the Democratic Party’s Supreme Council, said his party “can no longer sit idly by as acting President Choi turns a blind eye to what is going on, letting acts of insurrection to continue.”
“We urge the law enforcement to embark on an investigation of acting President Choi as promptly as possible,” Mr Kim said.
The Democratic Party said it does not yet plan to impeach Mr Choi, as previously warned.
According to Rep. Park Kyoon-taek, who is on the National Assembly Judiciary Committee, the Democratic Party does not think the Cabinet officials next in line to be acting president after Choi would be “any more of an ally” in the investigation of Mr Yoon. “Impeaching acting President Choi is not going to be a solution at this stage,” the lawmaker told The Korea Herald.
Instead, the Democratic Party has threatened possibly impeaching Mr Oh Dong-woon, the chief prosecutor of the CIO, and even abolishing the investigation agency itself in the event of another failure to arrest Yoon.
The ruling People Power Party slammed the Democratic Party as resorting to “an endless impeachment spree” against Yoon officials.
“The Democratic Party impeached the president, and then impeached the acting president just 13 days later. Now they are trying to seek a criminal investigation of the second acting president in less than a month,” the ruling party said. “The Democratic Party clearly has no interest in stabilising the country and getting the economy back on track.”
The National Assembly is set to vote on a motion to launch a special counsel investigation of Mr Yoon’s Dec 3 botched imposition of martial law. The special counsel investigation would be on top of the investigation being handled by the CIO, and a parliamentary investigation that kicked off last month. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
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