Pres. Yoon claims investigation on First Lady is unconstitutional

In his press conference on Wednesday, President Yoon Suk Yeol reiterated his refusal to accept the so-called Act on conducting a special investigation into First Lady Kim Keon Hee, arguing that the investigation itself is an unconstitutional concept. The opposition party passed the act for the third time in the National Assembly's legislation and judiciary committee on Thursday, planning to process it at the National Assembly’s plenary session on November 14. This will likely lead to another clash as President Yoon may exercise his veto, prompting a potential re-vote in the National Assembly.

President Yoon invoked the core reason for its unconstitutionality: the investigation rights belong solely to the executive branch based on the fundamental democratic principle of separating three powers. With the National Assembly leading the implementation of the special investigation and the opposition party unilaterally nominating the special investigation prosecutor, Yoon believes such attempts infringe upon the special rights of the president. He also insisted that investigating those who prosecutors had already investigated for charges of stock manipulation of Deutsche Motors would constitute a human rights violation. Such an argument by the president contradicts what he has shown as a career prosecutor or his previous statements.

As a senior investigator back then, President Yoon conducted an overall investigation on then-President Park Geun-hye's influence peddling on state affairs as a senior investigator. Yoon was a prosecutor at the Daejeon District High Prosecutors' Office. After the investigation, Yoon was promoted to the head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office and eventually became the prosecutor general. The way of unilaterally appointing by the opposition party was also adopted for the first time by Yoon's special investigation back then. The investigation team leader accepted the nomination, which helped Yoon's investigation be successful. Yoon insisting that the way is unconstitutional now would be tantamount to self-denial.

Essentially, special investigations are typically conducted when those done by the investigative authority seem insufficient. President Yoon himself suggested adopting the special investigation into the suspicious death of Marine Corporal Chae after the investigation by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials. It is a matter of course that those investigated by the investigative authorities are subject to further investigation by the special investigation by prosecutors. Yoon summoned and investigated Choi Soon-sil already investigated by the prosecutors' office. Would the president call his own past decisions a violation of human rights?

The special investigation systems have been adopted 14 times since 1999. Those investigations often proved to be successful in fact finding and resolving public suspicions. The very reason why Yoon requested a special investigation into the Daejang-dong real-estate-related scandal as the ruling party's presidential candidate back then is that Yoon knew those investigations worked. However, now he is all against the idea of investigating the first lady for no apparently convincing grounds. No one would be able to trust Yoon and have faith in his authenticity when he conveniently changes his position on conducting the special investigation. All we hear is that his argument is mere sophistry, aimed solely at defending First Lady Kim.