South Korea’s People Power Party rallies against proposed special counsel on dropped indictments

The People Power Party on May 6 urged the Democratic Party to withdraw a proposed special counsel bill tied to canceling indictments, calling it a “special counsel law to erase the president’s trial.” 

Floor leader Song Eon-seok made the remarks at a rally at the National Assembly titled “Rally condemning a special counsel to erase President Lee Jae-myung’s crimes.” He said it would create “a world where a thief appoints the police and the police erase the thief’s trial,” calling it “the face of Lee Jae-myung’s Korea.”

Song criticized what he described as a reversal of basic roles in the justice system, saying police should catch thieves, prosecutors should investigate them and judges should rule on their crimes. “The country is being run in a strange way,” he said.

He said President Lee had described the indictment-cancellation special law as something that “must be done,” which Song claimed amounted to an order that Lee’s trial “must be eliminated by canceling the indictment.”

Song also accused Lee of using presidential power to “erase all” of his criminal record, calling it a “dictatorial idea” and “tyranny.”

Referring to Lee’s reported comment asking that timing and procedures be judged carefully, Song said Lee did not ask for a review of the substance. Song argued the message was that cancellation was mandatory, while the timing should be weighed because an election is approaching and public backlash is a concern.

Song urged the government and ruling party to act immediately if they intend to proceed, adding that they should instead pledge openly in the upcoming local elections to cancel the indictment and “receive the people’s judgment.”

Rep. Yoon Sang-hyeon, in a separate speech, said an unprecedented effort was underway to “launder” judicial decisions through legislation. He accused backers of the bill of trying to create the special counsel law “for Lee Jae-myung alone,” shake investigative agencies, pressure the court and “wash 12 criminal allegations completely not guilty.”

Yoon called it unconstitutional and anti-state behavior that breaks the principle of a liberal democratic republic, describing it as a “self-exemption legislative coup” that would undermine the rule of law.