With the justice minister post vacant for two months, Democratic Party lawmakers Park Gyun-taek and Yang Bu-nam have emerged as candidates, and the fact that both joined a party group pushing to drop President Lee's prosecution has become a controversy. The presidential office said only that Lee is weighing the two; whether and when a final nomination will come has not been confirmed.
According to Hankook Ilbo, a presidential official confirmed on the 25th that President Lee Jae-myung is weighing lawmakers Park Gyun-taek and Yang Bu-nam for justice minister. The post has been empty for two months, since nominee Kim Seung-won withdrew on the 19th of last month amid allegations including a favor request over approval of a new-drug clinical trial. Hankook Ilbo read the pick as a search for a sitting lawmaker with senior prosecutorial experience to steady a prosecution organization unsettled after the launch of the new public prosecution office.
광고 문의 · 300×250The two candidates' records
Park Gyun-taek, from Gwangju, served as Gwangju High Prosecutors' Office chief and is a first-term lawmaker for Gwangju Gwangsan A. Yang Bu-nam, from Damyang in South Jeolla, retired as Busan High Prosecutors' Office chief and is a first-term lawmaker for Gwangju Seo B. Hankook Ilbo reported that both were involved in handling the president's legal risks and are named in a party group launched in February to push for dropping the president's prosecution.
Park was listed as Lee's defense counsel in the Daejang-dong, Wirye and Seongnam FC cases before resigning in October 2023, and said in a broadcast interview on the 5th that prosecution should be dropped if prosecutors erred. Yang did not take on cases directly but supported Lee's legal response as the Democrats' legal committee chair. Hankook Ilbo noted that the justice minister can direct specific cases through the head of the prosecution office, which could affect whether a prosecution is dropped.
Opposition attack and views in and around the ruling camp
According to Weekly Kyunghyang, People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won wrote on Facebook on the 25th, two names but one record, criticizing that since both were Lee's defenders, the arrangement would put a defendant's own case in his lawyer's hands. Hankook Ilbo said floor spokesperson Choi Eun-seok asked whether this was a personnel pick to erase the president's own charges, raising possible conflict of interest. Neither report carried a formal rebuttal from the presidential office or the Democratic Party.
Hankook Ilbo quoted a senior Democratic lawmaker, speaking anonymously, as saying the right pick is a sitting lawmaker with senior prosecutorial background who understands the president's governing philosophy, and that there were probably no other options. Park has been criticized as a prosecution loyalist for past support of keeping prosecutors' supplementary investigation powers, and divisions among supporters over how to reform the prosecution were cited as a variable. We will report the final decision as it is confirmed.
