Minister Jung Sung-ho of the Ministry of Justice said regarding the "National Assembly investigation to uncover the truth about the alleged fabricated indictments by the political prosecutors of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration" that "given the significant public doubts over the propriety of the investigative process at the time, we will cooperate to the fullest so the substantive truth can come to light." In response to criticism that the response to the so-called "salmon and drinking party inducement allegations," recently raised by some in the ruling camp, was inadequate, he drew a line, calling it "groundless concern."
On the 3rd, the Minister wrote on Facebook, "Starting today, a National Assembly investigation begins to uncover alleged illegalities surrounding various investigative processes under the previous administration," adding this. While stating a clear intention to cooperate with the investigation, he pushed back that criticism claiming the Ministry of Justice was passive in clarifying the allegations is not true.
The Minister particularly cited the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office's "salmon sashimi drinking party allegations," emphasizing that the Ministry of Justice's response has already progressed considerably. He said, "Last year, the Ministry of Justice formed a special inspection team to review the overall investigative process and produced a 1,600-page report," adding, "Based on this, in Sep. last year we issued a special directive to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office to conduct a fact-finding probe, and the inspection by the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office task force formed accordingly is in its final stage."
He continued, "A considerable number of the key facts known publicly are also based on the results of this probe," adding, "It is inconsistent to raise issues based on facts confirmed by the Ministry of Justice while doubting the ministry's will and capacity to conduct inspections." This flatly denied claims in some quarters that the Ministry of Justice had been idle.
He also said it was not true that there had been a so-called "bypassing of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office inspection chief." The Minister said, "With inspections already underway since last year on the Minister's instructions, who holds command authority over prosecutorial affairs, it does not accord with law or common sense to question whether approval by the subordinate Supreme Prosecutors' Office inspection chief is required." He added that disciplinary action or criminal complaints "are not achieved by loud voices, but are completed with clear facts and the evidence and legal theory that support them."
Regarding the controversy over Prosecutor Park Sang-yong, a key figure in the allegations, appearing on outside broadcasts, he acknowledged the inappropriateness but drew the line at strengthening separate controls. The Minister said, "In 2018, during prosecutorial reform, we changed the procedure for individual prosecutors' interviews from a pre-approval system to a prior notification system," adding, "While there are inappropriate aspects to the prosecutor's conduct, there is no need to dismantle the reform principles we set ourselves because of the outlier actions of one or two individuals."
The Minister also appeared that day at the National Assembly's institutional briefing for the investigation and explained the status of related inquiries and investigations. He said, "We will actively cooperate with the National Assembly investigation and do our utmost to resolve public suspicions."