Tension Between Ministry of Justice and Prosecutor’s Office Flares Up Yet Again

It has been revealed that the Ministry of Justice has been playing a leading role in putting the opposition Grand National Party’s main office under investigation in relation to the “Anpung” case in which the Agency for National Security Planning (NSP), the predecessor of National Intelligence Service, channeled some amount of its budget into election campaigning.

Regarding this, the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office had a negative attitude, which is known to cause conflicts between the Ministry of Justice and the Prosecutor’s Office. Now, however, the Prosecutor’s Office says that it is not true.

The Ministry of Justice is seeking a provisional seizure of the headquarters of the GNP for investigation of the case in which the NSP allegedly furnished some amount of its budget, from 1995 to 1996, to the Democratic Liberal Party and the New Korean Party, both predecessors of the GNP, to facilitate their election campaigns.

An official of the Litigation Division in the Ministry ordered the Seoul District Prosecutor’s Office, an agency in charge of litigation affairs on behalf of the nation, to submit an evaluation over whether it is necessary to take any action for the protection of national property when the GNP’s headquarters is sold, said an official of the Prosecutor’s Office yesterday.

In response, the Seoul District Prosecutor’s Office submitted a report to the Prosecutor’s Office highlighting the necessity of the provisional attachment to the GNP’s main office last Monday. The amount of money subject to the attachment is 85.6 billion won out of 119.7 billion that, the first trial decided, comes from the NSP’s budget for election campaigns.

However, the Prosecutor’s Office is being criticized for day to day delays and not asking for an approval from Ministry of Justice on the evaluation of the Seoul District Prosecutor’s Office. This provides more evidence of the alleged confrontation between Justice Minister Kang Kum-sil and Prosecutor General Song Kwang-soo which was sparked by their disputes over issuing writs of arrest to leaders of candlelight rallies which were in full swing last March.

Regarding this, the Prosecutor’s Office denied the chargers, saying, “it is not true” and attempting to mitigate the situation. Kook Min-soo, press secretary of the Prosecutor’s Office said yesterday that “when it comes to the procedure of provisional seizure, the Prosecutor’s Office is just a means of delivery between the Seoul District Prosecutor’s Office, whose role is to carry out litigations, and the Ministry of Justice, which takes the initiative in lawsuits raised by the nation. Besides, we will ask for approval from the Ministry sooner or later”

He also said, “The reason why we have not sent the Seoul District Prosecutor’s Office’s report to the Ministry for approval is because we need time. We do not have any plans to either disagree with the Seoul District Prosecutor’s Office or return it to them.”

Meanwhile, even though the conflict between Justice Minister Kang and Prosecutor General Song has been reduced since March, there is still some possibility that it will degenerate further.

However, considering the recent atmosphere stressing cooperation in politics, and the high possibility that Minister Kang will remain in office, it also very likely that the two might move towards a compromise.

Tae-Hoon Lee jefflee@donga.com