In the author’s numerous articles about high-profile investigations and political scandals in South Korea, he cannot help but mention Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl and his defiance against the Blue House. Hence, the author believes it would be pertinent to provide more information about him and a more detailed timeline of his opposition to the current government.
Yoon Seok-youl was born in Seoul and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in law from Seoul National University. He started his career at Daegu Public Prosecutor’s Office in 1994 and subsequently, worked in Busan, Gwangju and Seoul. In 2013, his name first appeared in newspaper headlines because he accused his boss on national television of attempting to influence his investigation of claims that under President Lee Myung-bak, the NIS (National Intelligence Service) had tried to manipulate the result of the 2012 presidential election.
During parliamentary hearing sessions, Yoon Seok-youl said that he did not feel a sense of loyalty to anyone, and at the time, many members of the opposition praised him for his uncompromising attitude. Afterwards, Yoon Seok-youl acquired a reputation of an upright prosecutor who was not afraid to investigate people in power, which is why he was subsequently demoted to the Daegu and Daejeon High Prosecutors’ Office. He worked there until the Moon Jae-in government appointed him as the Chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in 2018.
Yoon Seok-youl was also a member of the special prosecutor team, which investigated the Choi Soon-sil scandal. It is believed that he found some important evidence about her corrupt activities. In addition, Yoon Seok-youl was part of the team investigating Ahn Hee-jung, the main darkhorse contender to be the Democratic Party of Korea’s presidential nominee against frontrunner Moon Jae-in.
On 18 June, Chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office Yoon Seok-youl was officially appointed as the new Prosecutor General by the state council. And when in July 2019, he took on the new role, the presidential office stated that Yoon Seok-youl had “fought corruption and unfair practices throughout his career”. His two-year term will end in July 2021, several months before the presidential election that is due to take place in 2022.
Many thought that Yoon Seok-youl was nominated because of his political inclinations and that he would convict people at the behest of the Blue House and find a way to justify such decisions. The President also said that Yoon Seok-youl “was deemed fit to oversee the reform of the prosecution”.
However, at the end of the year, the Prosecutor General’s office started stepping out of line by for instance, leading an investigation against the former Senior Secretary to the President for Civil Affairs and subsequently Minister of Justice Cho Kuk, who was involved in a number of corruption-related scandals. As a result of the ongoing inquiry and mass protests against Cho Kuk, he was forced to resign after being in the post for less than 40 days. At present, the investigation is proceeding at a snail’s pace, however, his wife has already been officially indicted for a forgery of official document.
At the same time, the Prosecutor General’s office started another investigation, which Moon Jae-in was unhappy about, into suspected election rigging by senior secretaries at the Blue House of the Ulsan mayoral race for Mayor Song Cheol-ho, a longtime friend of President Moon Jae-in, in 2018. It turned out that before the election, the President ordered the Ulsan law enforcement to raid the office of former Ulsan Mayor Kim Gi-hyeon over bribery allegations. The police referred the case to the prosecution, which negatively affected his campaign and most likely helped the opponent win.
According to South Korea’s conservative media outlets, at the time, Moon Jae-in made sure to let the Prosecutor General know that the latter needed to be less aggressive about investigating the President’s associates and instead focus on cases of corruption involving officials who opposed him. Still, Moon Jae-in continued to publicly support the fighter against corruption. During his New Year’s news conference on January 14, 2020, Moon Jae-in called for Prosecutor General to push for “self-reform”. He also stated that the state prosecution was “still powerful”.
However, almost as soon as former leader of Democratic Party of Korea Choo Mi-ae officially replaced Cho Kuk as the new Minister of Justice, she declared war against Yoon Seok-youl’s office almost immediately. On January 8, 2020, the South Korean Ministry of Justice announced the reassignment of “key prosecutors and Yoon lieutenants investigating” abuse of power and corruption allegations against key members of the Moon Jae-in administration. After such actions were taken against Yoon Seok-youl’s team, it became more difficult for its members to do their job. Although the key prosecutors were technically promoted, they ended up in less important posts outside the main office of the prosecution in Seoul. For instance, Han Dong-hoon, head of the anticorruption and organized crimes department of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and lead prosecutor in the investigation against Cho Kuk, was named as deputy head of the Busan High Prosecutors’ Office. Head of the public security department of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Park Chan-ho, who was investigating the allegations that the Blue House abused its power to influence the 2018 Ulsan mayoral election, was named head of the Jeju District Prosecutors’ Office. Head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office Bae Seong-beom was named head of the Institute of Justice, a research institute run by the ministry in North Chungcheong.
Yoon Seok-youl’s former team members were replaced with individuals loyal to the President. Head of the prosecution bureau of the Ministry of Justice Lee Seong-yun became the head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, while Jo Nam-gwan, head of the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office, was appointed director of the Criminal Affairs Bureau at the justice ministry. Both Lee Seong-yun and Jo Nam-gwan worked for the Roh Moo-hyun administration, and the former and Moon Jae-in are alumni of the same university.
Over the course of the entire year, Lee Seong-yun did not just systematically throw a monkey wrench into Prosecutor General’s plans, but also, as it came to light in autumn 2020, deliberately interfered with the case against Optimus Asset Management, involved in fraud, whose leadership had direct connections with the presidential administration. In fact, according to conservative media outlets, the company helped enrich members of Moon Jae-in’s inner circle.
During this entire year (2020), Choo Mi-ae has been trying to curb Yoon Seok-youl’s powers and has, from time to time, demanded that the Prosecutor General stop inquires into one case or another. At the same time, she tried to initiate investigations against members of the prosecutor team, including prosecutor Han Dong-hoon accused of unduly using his position of influence. The case centered on a reporter from cable Channel A who was suspected of pressuring a jailed financier to divulge corrupt acts by a pro-government commentator, Rhyu Si-min close to President Moon Jae-in. The writer tried to leverage his ties with prosecutor Han Dong-hoon, deemed powerful enough to influence the inmate’s case and the Supreme Prosecutors Office was asked not to intervene in the investigation.
On July 2, the Yonhap News Agency wrote that Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae had ordered Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl to suspend the convening of an expert advisory panel to review a suspected collusion case that involved Han Dong-hoon, because the assessment on the case might bring out a hasty conclusion, which in turn could hamper the efforts to find the truth. Naturally, the Prosecutor General was asked not to intervene in the investigation that involved his colleague.
On July 9, it was reported that Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl had backed down and accepted the Justice Minister’s directive not to intervene in an alleged blackmail case and “let the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office continue its independent investigation”.
Some national media outlets openly favor the President’s viewpoint. On July 18, KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) reported that it confirmed “circumstantial evidence of collusion” between reporter Lee Dong-jae and Han Dong-hoon. Apparently, a transcript of a conversation between them showed the prosecutor tried to help the writer dig up some dirt on high-level officials in the Moon Jae-in’s administration before the April 15 election. However, according to a transcript released by Channel A, Han Dong-hoon did not make any comments that could be interpreted as a willingness to help the reporter. In fact, the prosecutor flatly refused to offer any information. After KBS was criticized for broadcasting fake news, the broadcaster apologized.
Tensions ran so high that the conservatives accused the Minister of Justice of abusing her powers and violating the Prosecutors’ Office Act. They also submitted an impeachment motion. However, on July 23, South Korea’s National Assembly voted it down.
On July 24, the Yonhap News Agency reported that an independent panel has recommended the prosecution to halt the ongoing investigation into Han Dong-hoon for lack of evidence.
Accusations have also been made against Yoon Seok-youl, and Rep. Choe Kang-wook of the minor Open Democratic Party was among the plaintiffs who filed complaints against the top prosecutor. The Open Democratic Party was established shortly before the South Korean legislative election on April 15, 2020 and included people who were fairly close to the President. Recently, its members criticized the Democratic Party for adopting a more conservative approach. After the election, the party gained only 3 seats, much less than expected.
On August 3, at a welcome event for newly appointed prosecutors at the Supreme Prosecutors Office in Seoul, Yoon Seok-youl said, “Liberal democracy, a core value of the Constitution, refers to a real democracy that rejects autocracy and totalitarianism under the pretense of democracy”. These comments set off heated political debates over whether the top prosecutor was taking a snipe at Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae, and, by extension, the government.
In October 2020, during an annual audit of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office at the National Assembly, Yoon Seok-youl was asked whether he would consider entering politics after his term as Prosecutor General expired. In response, he gave ambiguous answers, “It is inappropriate to talk about my next move now as I am busy enough carrying out my duties as the prosecutor general, and have no time to think about other things. I will take time to think about my future after my term comes to an end”.
All in all, up to a point, despite actively opposing the direction taken by the government, Yoon Seok-youl played by the rules and followed orders from above. However, by November 2020, the pressure applied by the Ministry of Justice grew to unprecedented levels.
The author believes the situation turned into a vicious cycle. Although Yoon Seok-youl has not talked about his political ambitions yet and has expressed his intentions to finish his 2-year term as Prosecutor General in its entirety and only then think about the future, since June 2020 he has been cited as a potential presidential runner for the opposition bloc in various opinion polls. According to a Realmeter survey conducted in June, Yoon Seok-youl was supported by 10.1 percent of respondents as the next president.
In November 2020, amid high-profile confrontations with former and sitting Ministers of Justice, he reached the number 1 spot in the polls. According to a survey conducted by Hangil Research at the beginning of November, the Prosecutor General (whose favorability rating stood at 24.7%) was trailed by Rep. Lee Nak-yon, chairman of the ruling Democratic Party (22.2 %), and Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung (18.4 %). A poll carried out at the end of November showed that Lee Nak-yon maintained his top spot, with 20.6 percent, while the Persecutor General came in second (19.8%).
Then the Blue House started viewing Yoon Seok-youl as a rival with political ambitions and began pressuring him even more. On November 5, the Yonhap News Agency reported that the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office had “launched a probe into allegations” that Prosecutor General’s wife “was involved in bribery and stock manipulation cases”. The allegations were once again raised by Rep. Choe Kang-wook.
After more fabricated accusations were made against the Prosecutor General, on 24 November 2020, the Justice Minister suspended Yoon Seok-youl from office. The move resulted in political turmoil because even in the darkest years under a military dictatorship, such things did not happen. According to an article published by the Yonhap News Agency, “Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl built his image as an upright prosecutor after he pressed ahead with investigations” of the scandals during the conservative Park Geun-hye administration. “Former Justice Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn was disappointed” by the actions of then-senior prosecutor but the Justice Minister refrained from stepping in, “upholding the independence of the top law enforcement agency”.
In order to find out how the process of removing the Prosecutor General from his post is going and whether he will enter the presidential race, please read the upcoming articles.
Konstantin Asmolov, PhD in History, a leading research fellow at the Center for Korean Studies of the Institute of the Far East at the Russian Academy of Sciences, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.