Democratic Party of Korea leader Jung Chung-rae signaled a pace adjustment on Sunday regarding the timing of the "Special Counsel Bill on Allegations of Fabricated Investigations and Indictments under the Yoon Suk-yeol Administration," saying, "We will make the best choice by gathering the collective will of the public, party members, and lawmakers."
Speaking to reporters after a campaign rally at Keun Market in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province, Jung said, "Since there was a Presidential Office briefing yesterday, the party and the presidential office need to coordinate." He added, "We will gather opinions through a party caucus and also ask for the views of party members to determine the best course of action."
Hong Ik-pyo, senior presidential secretary for political affairs, said at a briefing the previous day that President Lee Jae-myung had instructed, "Regarding the specific timing and procedures, I ask the ruling Democratic Party to make a judgment after going through a process of gathering public opinion and deliberation." Concerns have been raised both inside and outside the party that if the ruling party pushes ahead with the special counsel bill ahead of the June 3 local elections, it could accelerate the departure of moderates and the rallying of conservatives.
The Democratic Party on the 30th of last month introduced a special counsel bill to investigate allegations of fabricated indictments by the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's prosecutors, including the Ssangbangwool North Korea remittance case and the Daejang-dong case. The bill allows the special counsel, if deemed necessary in light of the progress of the investigation, to request the transfer of cases currently under investigation, indictment, or prosecution by prosecutors, and requires the requested agencies to comply.
The provision stipulating that the special counsel shall carry out the prosecution maintenance work (including decisions on whether to maintain prosecution) of transferred cases is being assessed as effectively granting the special counsel the authority to withdraw indictments.
Jung repeatedly emphasized the need for the special counsel. "If political prosecutors under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, who were obsessed with killing political rivals, suppressing the opposition party, and killing Lee Jae-myung, attempted to indict and punish people through false fabrications, that itself is a crime," he said. "The prosecution officials who took part in those crimes must be duly punished in the name of the law."
He continued, "If fabricated indictments and false fabrications are proven, the suspects and defendants at the time who suffered from those fabrications must naturally be granted relief. This is the embodiment of the spirit of the Republic of Korea's Constitution and the normalization of judicial justice."
He added, "As stated in Article 11 of the Constitution, all citizens are equal before the law. If there are citizens who have suffered unjustly from fabricated indictments, whether they are ordinary citizens, mayors, district heads, lawmakers, or the president, the constitutional spirit is that everyone must be granted relief equally."
