[칼럼] Korea  Story 38 - Politics and Election 2  by Atty Jeong-kee  Kim

(NewsKorea=Seoul) Digital News Team = Korea  Story 38 - <Politics and Election 2  by Atty Jeong-kee  Kim>

● Korean politics dominated by prosecutors and media cannot continue like this.

The status of politicians, who are power elites in Korea, is no longer what it used to be. The ideal of a leader who should be a role model has long since disappeared, and politicians have instead become objects of public disgust. How did this happen? There are several reasons, but one key factor is that influential politicians have been brutalized by the collusion between the prosecution and the media. The President, as the highest-ranking politician, serves as a prime example. Past presidents attempted to nurture successors as a safeguard after leaving office, but most have failed. This is due to the inherent limitations of a single five-year term, which inevitably brings about a lame-duck period. During the early years of a regime, the prosecution and media cowardly remain silent, but by the mid-to-late-term, they reveal their predatory nature and devastate the current power. In the U.S., the abuse of presidential power and investigations into minor issues do not shake the ruling authority or throw the country into confusion. However, in Korea, the prosecution leaks details about politicians to the media even before formal charges are filed, committing "character assassination," and the media, without filtration, brings these cases to a public trial, passing judgment in the direction they want. This is equivalent to subjecting someone to a people's tribunal before they even get to the court, thus undermining the rule of law. At the center of these primitive and anti-legal behaviors are the prosecution and the media.

As a result, there is not a single leader in Korea who serves as a role model for future generations. Which politician could survive against the rampant abuses of the prosecution and media? The prosecution and media have formed a cartel that seeks to perpetuate their power, abandoning their roles in realizing a just society and safeguarding citizens. They indulge in all sorts of wrongdoing. Therefore, I believe it is unsuitable for a politician to become a role model without undergoing a transformation from the current state of the prosecution and media, especially from "political prosecutors" and "political journalists" who privatize the power of the sword and the pen while pretending to be "embodiments of virtue." Leaders should be capable commanders and virtuous individuals, but it is difficult to expect such qualities from these two professions. The fact that there are many members of the National Assembly with backgrounds in the prosecution and media stands in stark contrast to the U.S., which has almost no such politicians. It is truly shameful that the prosecution and media have become so powerful that entering the political arena through these means has become a matter of course.

First, let us look at the prosecution. Every country has power institutions, such as the prosecution, the National Intelligence Service, the Board of Audit and Inspection, the police, the National Tax Service, and the Fair Trade Commission. Among these, the prosecution is the most powerful institution in Korea. The significant power held by the prosecution shows that, while our country may be economically advanced, it is still developing politically and socially. In advanced countries, public officials are so transparent and the distinction between public and private affairs is so routine that there is little room for the prosecution's influence. However, what about Korea? Even though Korea claims to be a rule-of-law nation, neither the state nor the people adhere to the law. Korea creates laws that are practically impossible to follow, making all parties involved potential lawbreakers. Complying with the law becomes nearly impossible for survival, leading people to engage in legal breaches despite knowing the risks. Thus, people end up living as slaves to duality in the gray areas of compliance and breach. This is where the prosecution’s “unchecked” power originates.

Although the Special Investigation Division of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, which once exclusively investigated high-level public officials' corruption and illegal activities by conglomerate owners, has been abolished, regional special investigation divisions, including the Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office, still perform this role. The prosecution, with its unchecked power inherited from the remnants of Japanese colonial rule, still possesses too many authorities. Although there have been adjustments to the investigative powers of the prosecution and the police, the adjustments are incomplete, and the prosecution continues to wield excessive power.

Despite having no risk of evidence destruction or flight, the Korean prosecution emphasizes the urgency and confidentiality of investigations, fundamentally using search and seizure, which instills fear in the general public. The prosecution frequently indicts individuals before guilt is confirmed, continuously infringing upon the constitutional rights of citizens. What is even worse is that, despite the presumption of innocence, information leaked to the media through which the media reports the news unfiltered results in suspects being treated as criminals in the public eye, especially leading to indiscriminate persecution of prominent figures. This is a malicious act perpetrated by the prosecution in collusion with the media solely to maximize the value of their organization. The culture prioritizes the organization over the state, adhering to hierarchical order. Exploiting the duality of the "primitive" rule-of-law state of Korea, they create their own power league and enjoy all sorts of privileges and wealth. This represents the dark side of the "Prosecutor's Republic" of Korea.

Why has it become this distorted? To explain, during the Fifth Republic under Chun Doo-hwan, who lacked legitimacy and authority as a military regime with power elites, the prosecution, composed of civilian personnel, was used as a loyal dog and nurtured as an "organization." In return, the prosecution's ranks were elevated by two levels above those of other central government employees, causing fairness issues. Kim Young-sam, who championed a civilian government, ended the military rule that lasted over 30 years by eliminating the "Hanahui" military faction. During the elite power vacuum, the prosecution grew into a massive organization that replaced the military, becoming a malignant entity that is difficult to address under any regime.

In the U.S., there is no equivalent to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. There is the Department of Justice at the central level, which includes various general departments and administrative support offices managing 94 federal district attorneys. The FBI, an agency under the Department of Justice, conducts investigations and collects domestic intelligence but does not have prosecutorial authority. Each department operates relatively independently under the supervision of the Attorney General. There are 94 U.S. Attorneys appointed by the President based on the recommendation of US senators, who lead federal district attorney offices. The state Attorney General, elected through election, oversees state prosecutors. At the county level, district attorneys are elected by popular vote and lead county district attorney offices. Both federal and local prosecutors do not have exclusive investigative or prosecutorial powers and do not follow the unitary prosecutor principle. The hierarchy is simple, like that of university faculty ranks—assistant prosecutors, deputy prosecutors, and prosecutors—with the heads being the federal Attorney General and the state Attorney General. Thus, there are only prosecutors and the Attorney General. The numerous reasons for the U.S. prosecution not becoming a power institution highlight its differences from Korea.

Next, let's look at the media. It has been a long time since the media in Korea gave up its role as a representative of the people, that is, as a tribune, intoxicated by the power of the non-existent fourth branch following the legislative, judiciary, and executive branches, and with a sense of superiority due to an insufficient intellectual base compared to other expert groups. Even though Korean society is not based on honesty, the media, which is supposed to lead the people to the right path and pursue honest opinion, is often at the center of fake news, and shows the extreme of 'or not' style irresponsibility. I feel no remorse. 

In such cases, the U.S. treats it as a serious crime. There is a concept of punitive damages, which imposes severe penalties. When journalists produce fake news based on false information, their careers end immediately. Often, the media organizations that employed them also shut down. This is due to the harsh but effective implementation of punitive damages. A recent attempt to legislate punitive damages in Korea had the proposed law buried despite the fact that it only included a fivefold damage range. The cowardly National Assembly succumbed to media threats, causing the legal check on the media to be abandoned.

So, who will monitor and control the all-powerful media? It is the people—the readers, specifically. The New York Times, for example, was essentially nurtured into a world-class newspaper by its readers. American journalists fear their readers the most. Readers of the New York Times do not hesitate to harshly criticize the newspaper when it deviates from accurate reporting and takes an unusual direction. Isn't it time for Korean citizens, i.e., readers, to step up as monitors and controllers of the media?
 

☆ Author:  Atty Jeong-kee Kim ☆

● Education
- Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Summa Cum Laude, State University of New York at Stony Brook
-  Doctor of Jurisprudence, Marquette University Law School
- Senior Executive Program, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
- Research Scholar in North Korean Studies, Peking University

● Experience
- Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai
- Commissioner General for the Korean Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo
- CEO, Asia-Pacific Local Government Network for Economic and Social Development (CityNet)
- Secretary General, World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization(WeGO)
- Law Clerk, Milwaukee Circuit Court, USA
- Senior Attorney-at-Law, Dr & Aju LLC
- Distinguished Visiting Professor, World Economy Research Institute, Nanjing University
- Research Professor, Institute of Oriental Studies, Peking University
- Distinguished Professor, Graduate School of Political Science, Kookmin University
- Chair Professor, Graduate School of Business, Dongguk University
- First President of Soongsil Cyber University

● Publications
- Georo English Studies Series for College Students [10 volumes] (Georo Publishing)
- I Challenge the Possibility of One Percent (Chosun Ilbo)
- The Art of Negotiation (Cheongnyonneongsin Publishing)
- Korea and the World (Chekmidum Publishing)