Why President Moon is Attacking Korea’s Prosecutorial System

If anyone is wondering why President Moon is going after Korea’s prosecutorial system here is the supposed reason:

Moon, who once worked as a lawyer, saw the need for an institutional framework to end what he saw as a vicious cycle: The prosecution was used as a tool for “political retaliation” every time a government changed. 

Roh died by suicide in 2009, the year after he completed his term, after prosecutors under conservative President Lee Myung-bak questioned him over bribery allegations. 

“The conflict between the participatory (Roh Moo-hyun) government and the prosecution over the reform resulted in Roh’s tragic death,” Moon wrote in the book. 

Korea Herald

In reality the prosecutors were not responsible for Roh’s death, the corruption surrounding Roh was responsible for his death. Long time ROK Heads may remember that Roh used to go around claiming he was the “cleanest” ROK president ever; essentially attacking past Korean conservative Presidents as being corrupt. When President Lee Myung-bak took over after Roh Presidency ended, he had prosecutors look into Roh’s finances and found corruption involving family members and former aides. Roh had to eventually admit to his part in the corruption:

“I want to make public something in advance,” Roh wrote. “Right now, Chung Sang-moon, former Blue House secretary, is being questioned on charges of receiving money from Park. I am concerned that Chung might have testified that he had actually done so. The accusation should be directed toward us, not Chung.

“My home made the request, received money and used it,” the former president confessed. “We have done so because we still had outstanding debts.” 

Roh wrote that he will cooperate with the prosecution’s investigation and testify concerning details. “I will face legal action in accordance with the case. I apologize again,” he wrote. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

Instead of facing an embarrassing trial for the multiple corruption cases that surrounded him and his family he decided to commit suicide. His suicide effectively made him a martyr to the Korean left and protected his kids from being charged by the prosecutors.

So when President Moon Jae-in took over as President he immediately went after former President Lee for corruption and had him thrown in jail. So it is pretty ironic that Moon claims in his book that the prosecution system needs to be reformed because it gets used for political retaliation when he in fact did the same thing once in power.

Then last week he executed his “Wednesday Night Massacre” to stifle corruption investigations into his administration by Korean prosecutors. His administration also implemented so called “reforms” that will ensure that the current government can continue to cover up internal corruption.