Kim Seok-woo, Acting Minister of Justice, said on the 12th regarding the court's decision to cancel the arrest of President Yoon Suk-yeol, "I think it is unjust," but noted, "If the prosecution files an immediate appeal, it will clearly be unconstitutional."
During an emergency inquiry at the National Assembly's Legislative and Judiciary Committee that day, Acting Minister Kim responded to a question from Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Ki-pyo.
Acting Minister Kim said, "I think the court's decision is unjust and needs to be rectified," but added, "The part where the prosecution did not file an immediate appeal in the method of contesting could be highly unconstitutional if they do so." He continued, "According to the intent of the decision document, it is interpreted on the premise that the arrest is illegal, and whether the prosecution procedure is lawful can be contested during the first trial process," and stated, "We plan to contest this in the main case."
Acting Minister Kim said, "The court needs to release the President and prosecute him, but I see that there is an issue with prosecuting while he is in custody," adding, "I think this will be one of the issues in the first trial." In response to a question from Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Sung-yoon, he also said, "This matter will clearly be unconstitutional if an immediate appeal is made," and explained, "Looking at the unconstitutionality decision regarding the bail permission in 1993 and the unconstitutionality decision on the suspension of execution of detention in 2012, it is stated that the prosecution's judgment on whether to continue detention cannot take precedence over the judge's judgment."
In response to Democratic Party lawmaker Jeong Cheong-rae's remark that the Ministry of Justice claimed that an immediate appeal on the cancellation of detention decisions in criminal procedure law was not unconstitutional in 2015, Acting Minister Kim said, "That was discussed at the legislative theory level at the time."
Regarding the point that there are actual cases where the prosecution filed an immediate appeal against the court's decision to cancel detention, he said, "There are definitely cases of immediate appeals," but noted, "Existing cases all filed immediate appeals after they had released the detainees."