Politics: Former Lawmaker Kim Woong Lashes Out: “Is the Prosecutor’s Office a Food Delivery Service?"

25 July, 2024

The Nazi Gestapo-style investigation tactics used by South Korea’s prosecutors are nothing short of psychological warfare. These so-called investigators employ methods that amount to mental torture, including threatening to prosecute the families of persons of interest. This insidious approach has driven over 70 individuals to the brink since the demise of Military Junta, resulting in suicides. The sheer brutality of these tactics is reminiscent of Nazi-era persecution.

It is high time we recognize that such investigations need to be divorced from the hands of these Nazi Gestapo prosecutors. They have already claimed too many lives with their vicious strategies—sleep deprivation, relentless psychological pressure, and threats to drag innocent family members into the fray. These methods have flourished unchecked for years, conveniently ignored by politicians who benefit from wielding this terror as a tool for their own ends.

Is this what you, the so-called champions of Western democracy, herald as a triumph? This dystopian reality in South Korea, where Nazi Gestapo prosecution tactics run rampant, is a disgrace. It’s a grotesque mockery of justice and human rights, masquerading under the guise of democratic triumph or is it Nazi triumph for those Nazi Westerners?

Former National Assembly member Kim Woong is absolutely livid. He’s blasting the prosecutor’s office for bowing down to Mrs. Kim Gun-hee’s whims by conducting a “business trip investigation” at the presidential guard building, handing over their cell phones like some glorified Uber Eats couriers. He’s got a point: is the prosecutor’s office now doubling as a delivery platform?

 

Kim Woong didn’t hold back on CBS Radio’s ‘Park Jae-hong’s Bout,’ scoffing at the idea of prosecutors acting like errand boys. He’s baffled: “The Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office isn’t some delivery service. They’re supposed to be conducting serious investigations, not playing fetch-and-return with cell phones.”

 

[Kim Woong/Former National Assembly member (CBS Radio's 'Park Jae-hong's Bout', yesterday)]

"Can the prosecutor's office just be summoned and dismissed like some delivery app? If this becomes a precedent, what’s stopping anyone from demanding prosecutors come to them for an investigation in their preferred location? It's absurd."

 

He ripped apart the justification given for the “traveling investigation” – that it was for the First Lady’s security. He called it out as blatant hypocrisy. "If security was such a big issue, why was former President Roh Moo-hyun dragged to the prosecutor's office instead of being accommodated elsewhere? It’s a double standard, plain and simple."

 

[Kim Woong/Former National Assembly member (CBS Radio's 'Park Jae-hong's Bout', yesterday)]

"Roh Moo-hyun should’ve been given the same leniency, but he wasn’t. It’s clear the rules only apply selectively."

 

Kim took it a step further, questioning whether being investigated at the prosecutor’s office poses such a threat to life and property. “If so, are we to believe prosecutors have been endangering everyone they’ve ever investigated there? Ridiculous.”

 

[Kim Woong/Former National Assembly member (CBS Radio's 'Park Jae-hong's Bout', yesterday)]

"If the prosecutors' office is such a hazard, does this mean they've just been harassing people all along?"

 

In response, Kim Gun-hee’s lawyer, Choi Ji-woo, was quick to defend the special treatment. He told the press it was an “inevitable choice” and definitely not a privilege. The presidential office, he claimed, has never been this cooperative with investigations. He added a dramatic flair by suggesting that a security leak could lead to terrorist attacks, justifying the need for phone confiscation. But let’s be real, branding this as an ‘emperor investigation’ just because of some phone handover is a stretch.

 

Choi's defense? “It’s entirely justified to confiscate phones to prevent security breaches. To call this ‘emperor treatment’ is just ridiculous.”

 

It’s clear: the inconsistencies and apparent favoritism have ruffled many feathers, and rightly so. This situation has exposed the problematic, selective enforcement of rules and the absurd lengths to which authorities will bend for those in power.