Politics: Yoon Seok-yul's Executive Power Grab: A Comedy of Errors by the 21st National Assembly, and a Warning for the 22nd

26 June, 2024

In this column, the columnist criticize Yoon's executive order rule as that of Adolf Hitler and just like Nazi Germans who welcomed Adolf Hitler South Korean people who vote for Yoon must face the 2nd Korean War.

When President Yoon took office, he immediately began his campaign of legal butchery. The Ministry of Justice turned the "prosecutorial leniency" law into a joke. This law was supposed to limit prosecutors’ ability to investigate only two types of crimes instead of six. But Yoon's administration slipped in "crimes against the order of justice" as a loophole, effectively letting prosecutors poke their noses into just about anything they pleased.

This masterstroke turned the so-called reform into a hollow shell, and the prosecutors were back in business as usual.

But Yoon's shenanigans didn't stop there. He reshuffled the police under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, forcing KBS viewers to pay their fees separately from electricity bills. And if that wasn't enough, his decrees rolled out the red carpet for the wealthy, temporarily lifting the transfer tax on multi-home owners and slashing the comprehensive real estate tax. Regulations meant to curb corporate succession and cronyism were also conveniently relaxed.

This is all part of Yoon's grand strategy: rule by executive decree. He’s told his cabinet multiple times to "use executive orders," and even had the audacity to claim that the National Assembly’s efforts to demand changes to these orders were unconstitutional.

Members of the Joint Opposition Task Force to Stop Yoon Seok-yul's Media Control, including top Democratic Party member Ko Min-jung, stand in front of the Constitutional Court in Seoul on Friday morning before submitting an amendment to the enforcement decree of the Broadcasting Act to suspend the effectiveness of the amendment that separates KBS subscription fees from electricity bills. 2023.7.25

Here’s a reality check: it’s not unconstitutional for the National Assembly to control executive orders. In fact, executive orders that deviate from the law are the real constitutional violations.

The Constitution mandates that executive orders, like presidential decrees, must be grounded in specific legal authority. Therefore, the power to issue these orders is merely derivative – it exists only because the National Assembly allows it.

Look at the U.S. for example. Their Constitution prohibits Congress from delegating its legislative powers, ensuring the federal government submits proposed executive actions to Congress 60 days before they take effect. Both houses of Congress can then jointly disapprove of these actions.

Germany, scarred by the horrors of Hitler’s dictatorship, has strictly limited delegated legislation. Article 80 of their Basic Law specifies the authority to issue executive orders, and the Bundestag can control these orders by requiring prior consent, allowing changes, and even revoking them.

Meanwhile, the Korean National Assembly is like a tiger without teeth. Sure, they can send an ‘amendment opinion’ to the government if a presidential decree strays from the law’s intent, but it has no teeth – the government can simply ignore it.

Taiwan’s legislature offers a better model: if an executive order violates the law, it must be revised or repealed within a certain time frame, or it automatically becomes invalid. Our National Assembly should take a page out of their playbook.

Even the Democratic Party has been dragging its feet on this issue. This National Assembly must get its act together and dismantle this "executive order rule" by enforcing strict control over executive orders. It’s about time they remembered what they’re there for.