Is the Yoon Seok-yeol Administration Manipulating Justice? 7 Key Cases Under Investigation!

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On the 15th, the Democratic Party urged the People Power Party to cooperate in forming a special parliamentary committee to investigate seven cases prosecuted under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration — including the Daejang-dong, Wirye New Town and North Korea remittance cases in which President Lee Jae-myung has been indicted — and to establish the facts. The People Power Party, however, pushed back, centering the debate on allegations of a deal to drop prosecutions and demanding that the president “order a full halt to any effort to withdraw charges.”

At a press conference at the National Assembly, the Democratic Party’s “Committee to Pursue a Parliamentary Investigation into Fabricated Prosecutions and Dropped Charges under the Yoon Suk Yeol Administration” said the fact-finding process into alleged fabricated prosecutions by political prosecutors under the Yoon administration has now begun and urged the People Power Party to cooperate actively.

“For that to happen, the special parliamentary investigative committee must be formed as soon as possible,” the committee said. To ensure a substantive probe, the Democratic Party said it plans to form a 20-member investigative panel composed of lawmakers from both parties and urged the People Power Party to join the effort. It emphasized that a parliamentary inquiry is a shared duty the National Assembly must perform before the public, regardless of party affiliation.

“This investigation aims to restore judicial justice for the people and to correct the constitutional order,” the committee said, adding, “We ask that you immediately respond to the Assembly speaker’s request for discussions related to the call for a parliamentary inquiry so the special committee can be formed swiftly and with responsibility.”

The committee described the targeted cases as “representative instances of alleged fabricated prosecutions carried out by political prosecutors during the Yoon Suk Yeol administration,” and said, “Those responsible for fabricating indictments must be held firmly accountable, and these cases must be corrected to break the cycle of abuse.”

Earlier, on the 12th, the National Assembly logged the Democratic Party’s petition titled “Request for a Parliamentary Investigation into Alleged Fabricated Prosecutions by Political Prosecutors under the Yoon Suk Yeol Administration,” filed in the names of 141 Democratic Party lawmakers. The party plans to form the 20-member special committee, finalize an investigation plan, and begin hearings in April.

The seven cases under scrutiny include the Daejang-dong, Wirye New Town, and North Korea remittance cases in which the president is indicted; an alleged political funding scandal involving Kim Yong, former deputy director of the Democratic Research Institute and a close associate of the president; the Moon Jae-in administration’s alleged manipulation of statistics; the killing of a government official in the West Sea; and a Busan Savings Bank defamation case.

But the People Power Party said it would not cooperate with the parliamentary probe, making the so-called “deal to drop prosecutions” raised on Kim Eo-jun’s YouTube channel the central issue. On the 10th, Jang In-soo, a former MBC reporter, appeared on Kim’s channel and alleged that a senior government official — arguably one of President Lee’s closest aides — had requested prosecutors withdraw charges, a claim that has continued to spark controversy.

Choi Bo-yoon, the People Power Party’s chief spokesperson, said in a statement that “the Democratic Party, as soon as these deal allegations surfaced, unsurprisingly rushed to submit a petition for a parliamentary probe aimed at dropping charges in seven cases, including Daejang-dong.” He called the effort “a frontal attack on the constitutional order: luring prosecutors with the bait of expanded investigative authority to coerce them, and using parliamentary majority to upend trials is a clear act of undermining the constitution.”

Choi addressed the president directly: “Only President Lee Jae-myung can put an end to this outrageous controversy over a deal to drop prosecutions. The president must stop hiding behind the Democratic Party and end his silence. If these allegations are not true, he should immediately instruct his party to stop any effort to withdraw charges.”

He added that “the moment the president gives the impression he is intent on getting charges dropped in his own case, every prosecution reform and judicial overhaul pursued by this administration will forever carry the stigma of being measures designed solely to protect the president. If the power to reopen investigations became a bargaining chip traded for dropping charges in the president’s personal case, the administration would have turned the public’s judicial safety net into a tool for self-preservation.”

Choi also criticized the Democratic Party for filing a police complaint on the 12th accusing Jang In-soo of defamation over the deal allegations while excluding Kim from the complaint. “Remaining silent about allegations raised on the outlet closest to the administration while only punishing other voices looks less like a search for truth and more like suppression of truth,” he said. “This exposé cannot simply be dismissed as a conspiracy theory.”

He called for the immediate appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the full scope of the deal allegations. “The Democratic Party should accept a special prosecutor immediately,” Choi said. “If it is revealed that there was an attempt to erase court records through the leverage of official power, that would constitute a grave crime that undermines the regime’s legitimacy. Those responsible would pay a heavy price before history and the law.”

Meanwhile, the president posted on X (formerly Twitter) the day before, saying, “Media outlets that report without fact-checking, those that deliberately distort and manipulate, and irresponsible outlets that repeat baseless claims are more dangerous than weapons. I long for a clean world where truth and justice flow like a clear river, free of fake news.”

He made the comment while citing the confirmation of a suspended prison sentence for lawyer Jang Young-ha, who had alleged the president’s ties to organized crime, but some observers interpreted the post as a broader expression of displeasure with media coverage amid ongoing “deal to drop prosecutions” allegations aired on Kim Eo-jun’s channel.

Hong Ik-pyo, the Blue House senior secretary for political affairs, on the 13th described the allegations as “very inappropriate fake news,” adding, “I’m so stunned I don’t know how to respond. The Blue House is busy internally and we have neither the time nor the reason to respond to every claim.”