Ministry of Justice ‘Stop discussing the exercise of command over the investigation of Park Bum-gye and Han Dong-hoon’

On the 31st, it was reported that Justice Minister Park Beom-gye was seeking to exercise command of investigation in connection with the suspicion of ‘collusion of prosecutors’ related to Channel A with Han Dong-hoon, deputy director of the Judicial Research and Training Institute (Chief Prosecutor). The position continued.

According to the legal circles, Minister Park Beom-gye ordered the Prosecutor’s Office of the Ministry of Justice to exercise the investigative command to restore the prosecutor-general’s command in the case.

Regarding this, as the 1st Detective Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, which is investigating the case, gave an 11th acquittal to Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon, there has been an interpretation that the intention was to prevent the final acquittal.

▶ The Ministry of Justice explained to the media on the afternoon of the day that “some media reported that Minister Park Bum-gye was activating the investigation command to prevent the acquittal of a specific person.”

In addition, “Secretary Park Beom-gye reviewed the investigation to restore the prosecutor-general’s investigative authority, which had been excluded twice by former Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae. We have decided to stop the discussion,” he added.

▶ Since the enactment of the Prosecutor’s Office Act in December 1949, the Minister of Justice’s exercise of command over investigations has been invoked four times in constitutional history. It has been invoked twice and once by the current Minister of Justice Park Beom-gye.

It was triggered once during the Roh Moo-hyun administration and three times during the Moon Jae-in administration. They all have one thing in common: it was the current Democratic administration period.

Previously, in 2005, former Minister Chun Jeong-bae instructed then Prosecutor General Kim Jong-bin to investigate Kang Jeong-gu, a professor at Dongguk University, who was under investigation for violating the National Security Act after posting an article on the Internet without detention. President Kim Jong-bin resigned after accepting command.

In addition, in 2020, former Minister Choo Mi-ae exercised investigative command over then Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol twice in the so-called ‘Chuyun conflict’ scheme. In the case involving Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon, his closest aide, and his wife, Kun-hee Kim and mother-in-law, the suspects were the suspects.

A year later, in 2021, his successor, Minister Park Beom-gye, directed the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office to deliberate on the possibility of prosecution of those involved in connection with the investigation team of the former Prime Minister Han Myung-sook’s investigation team over the suspicion of false perjury.

Following this, the possibility was raised that Minister Park Bum-gye would exercise the investigative command, which is his second, fourth in total under the Moon Jae-in administration, and fifth in constitutional history. However, the Ministry of Justice immediately announced that it would stop discussing the matter.