The former leadership of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office, which investigated the "Ssangbangwool illegal remittance to North Korea" case, voiced concerns over the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's attempt to discipline prosecutor Park Sang-yong, warning that it "could be exploited as political justification for future case dismissals and pardons."
Hong Seung-wook, former chief of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office; Kim Young-il, former second deputy chief prosecutor; and Kim Young-nam, former chief of the sixth criminal division, emphasized in a statement Monday that "this disciplinary attempt may be seen as an effort to undermine the legitimacy of the investigation, going beyond mere accountability for an individual prosecutor."
Park has been identified as a party to the so-called "salmon and alcohol entertainment inducement allegations" and has been subject to investigation and audit by the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office's Human Rights Violation Review Task Force (TF). He is accused of providing food such as salmon sashimi and soju, along with various conveniences, to induce testimony while investigating former Gyeonggi Province Peace Vice Governor Lee Hwa-young and others as part of the Ssangbangwool remittance case investigation team.
While Park has flatly denied the allegations, the High Prosecutors' Office TF that investigated the case reportedly reported to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office that alcohol was brought into the prosecutors' office at the time and that disciplinary action against the former prosecutor is warranted. The Supreme Prosecutors' Office plans to convene a disciplinary committee soon to decide on disciplinary action against Park.
The Suwon District Prosecutors' Office leadership criticized the move, saying, "Attempts to use peripheral logic unrelated to the substantive truth as grounds for discipline and transform them into claims of 'fabricated indictment' are nothing more than a political offensive that obscures the essence of the case." They added, "Pressuring prosecutors who conducted legitimate investigations to nullify judicial decisions will weaken the nation's crime response capabilities and shake the foundations of the rule of law."
They continued, "More than 70 trials conducted over two years and vast evidentiary records spanning tens of thousands of pages prove the falsity of the 'fabricated indictment' claims. Attempting to distort the truth through a few days of parliamentary inspections or hearings, while ignoring the facts established through court trials, is a direct denial of the principle of separation of powers."
They further stated, "Immediately halt the retaliatory disciplinary proceedings that seek to make frontline prosecutors scapegoats based on political interests simply because they conducted investigations that were not to someone's liking," and called for "an end to all acts of trampling on the judicial order that damage the constitutional order for the sake of specific individuals' well-being."
