President Lee Jae-myung: “We cannot control investigations and prosecutions under the pretense of prosecutorial reform.”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Hwang Yoon-ki = President Lee Jae-myung said on the 5th, "I believe that will not happen, but we should not try to control personnel matters and even specific investigation and prosecution work for selfish reasons under the pretext of prosecution reform."

In an article posted on

President Lee emphasized, "Prosecution reform is for the people, not to create a political legacy for specific individuals. It is even more wrong to disparage the efforts of others who claim to monopolize the results of everyone's efforts as 'useless' or even a hindrance."

Despite the Blue House's recent announcement of its position, it is believed to be aimed at hardliners within the party, including Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae, who continue to oppose the appointment of candidate Kim Ji-yong as head of the Serious Crimes Investigation Office.

Along with the article, President Lee also shared a video of Gangwon Province Governor Woo Sang-ho, who was in charge of coordinating prosecutorial reform with the Democratic Party of Korea as senior secretary for political affairs last year, refuting criticism within the party that the government was taking its time to avoid reform.

President Lee emphasized, "The government did not waste time, but in accordance with the party-government agreement, it achieved complete separation of investigation and prosecution more quickly and completely than any other government, as well as separation of affiliated ministries beyond what many people (not me) had originally envisioned."

Regarding the issue of whether to establish an investigative and prosecution agency within the Ministry of Justice or whether to separate its affiliated ministries, writer Yoo Si-min recently criticized that "the President has deceived the people so far," and President Lee's addition of "not me" is interpreted as an intention to refute this.

In relation to this, President Lee directly mentioned the 'Homeland Innovation Party' in an article posted on the afternoon of the same day and refuted in more detail that the prosecution reform work has become a reality beyond the claims of hardliners.

President Lee said, “Most of the proponents of prosecution reform, as well as the New Fatherland Reform Party, called for establishing a Central Investigation Office in charge of investigation and an Office of Public Prosecution in charge of prosecution within the Ministry of Justice,” adding, “Along with the argument that the Office of Public Prosecution be given supplementary investigative authority.”

He continued, “The government went one step further by separating the investigation and prosecution into the Central Investigation Office and the Public Prosecution Office, but assigning them separately to the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Public Administration and Security.” He added, “In this process, the claim of ‘deprivation of the right to supplementary investigation’, which changed their position, was also carried out.”

At the same time, he emphasized, “The separation of investigation and prosecution, which is the essence of prosecution reform, has been completed to the extent that even supplementary investigations are prohibited.”

In another post, President Lee shared part of a video of the late former President Roh Moo-hyun's speech while he was alive and said, "Former President Roh Moo-hyun was also wary of extremism," and added, "Extremism existed during the French Revolution, it existed during the Roh Moo-hyun era, and it exists now and will continue to exist in the future."

Recently, President Lee has been posting posts every day that seem to be targeting hardliners inside and outside the party, saying, "We must be wary of irresponsible extremism everywhere," or "Reform should be a goal, not a means to reveal clarity, gain attention, and attack someone."