Prosecutors’ lenient investigation into First Lady only increases call for special counsel investigation

2024.10.21 17:38
Kang Yeon-ju, Lee Chang-jun

First Lady Kim Keon-hee, who accompanied President Yoon Suk-yeol to attend the ASEAN Summit, arrives at Vientiane Wattai International Airport in Laos on October 9 and talks with a welcoming Lao official. Yonhap News

First Lady Kim Keon-hee, who accompanied President Yoon Suk-yeol to attend the ASEAN Summit, arrives at Vientiane Wattai International Airport in Laos on October 9 and talks with a welcoming Lao official. Yonhap News

The prosecution's decision not to indict First Lady Kim Keon-hee for her alleged involvement in the Deutsch Motors stock manipulation case has been causing controversy. The controversy over “lenient investigation” reached its peak when it was revealed that the prosecutors did not conduct a single forced investigation, including raids, while investigating Kim for four and a half years. The controversy has spilled over into a decision on whether to reopen the case following an appeal by the accuser, the opposition's push for the impeachment trial of the prosecutor general and the prosecutors in charge of the investigation, and its push for a bill mandating a special counsel investigation into the first lady. Some inside and outside the prosecution say that it brought this mess upon itself.

Even though the prosecution dropped the charges on October 17, the criticism has only increased without resolving the suspicions. The prosecution's own disclosure of loopholes in the investigation has been pointed out as a circumstance of a "lenient investigation" one by one. In particular, the revelation that the prosecution did not conduct a single forced investigation, such as raids, during the four-and-a-half-year investigation is said to have been a decisive moment in the prosecution's loss of credibility.

A legal official familiar with the stock price manipulation case involving Kim said, "The investigation team cleared Kim of any direct evidence, including direct statements from those involved, and usually, stock price manipulation cases must be proved based on circumstantial evidence because the people involved in the case deny the allegations."

A senior prosecutor with a lot of special investigation experience also said, "This case is actually difficult for prosecutors to prosecute unless they conduct a special counsel investigation," adding, "In this situation where there is such a lack of evidence and some indirect evidence, the decision from higher-ups would have been important in the end." He added, "This result will inevitably give a boost to promote a special counsel investigation into Kim.” Another senior prosecutor said, “Normally, we don't write anything unfavorable to the investigation team in the non-prosecution decision. Unless we disclose all the investigation records, the controversy of unfairness is inevitable.”

The problem is that even though the prosecution's investigation is over, the embers have not been extinguished and are moving here and there. First, an appeal process is expected to begin, which is being prepared by Choi Kang-wook, a former Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) lawmaker and the accuser of the stock manipulation case. The Seoul High Prosecutors' Office, an agency that receives appeals against the disposition of investigations, can dismiss the appeal, investigate the case itself, or order a reinvestigation. The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) is facing a full-scale probe into Kim's alleged acceptance of a luxury bag and her alleged interference in the nomination of People’s Power Party (PPP) lawmakers for elections.

Politics is also on the move. Following the dismissal of Kim's stock price manipulation case, the opposition began to push for a parliamentary impeachment trial of Prosecutor General Shim Woo-jung, Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office chief Lee Chang-soo and other prosecutors. A “bill mandating a special counsel investigation into Kim,” which the opposition is preparing to introduce for the third time, is also being reorganized by adding new suspicions, such as Kim’s alleged interference in the nomination of PPP lawmakers for elections. “It seems that the prosecution's closure of the investigation into Kim has not ended her judicial risk, but rather prolonged it,” said a lawyer who was a former prosecutor.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.

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