[News Today] PROSECUTORS RESIST ‘IMPEACH MOVE’

[LEAD]
As the Democratic Party attempts to impeach the Deutsche Motors case prosecutors, opposition within the prosecution is growing. Following senior prosecutors, department heads at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office have now collectively acted to stop the impeachment. The Justice Minister countered, urging lawmakers to impeach him instead.

[REPORT]
Senior prosecutors at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office posted a statement on their internal network in protest of the main opposition Democratic Party's move to impeach the prosecution's leadership.

This comes just a day after they held a meeting and discussed response measures. All 33 seniors excluding Choi Jae-hoon who heads an anticorruption unit and is subject to the impeachment took part in the statement.

They argued the DP's move is an illegitimate attempt harming the Constitution's basic value and a direct infringement of the prosecution's essential function.

They said that if the role of the Seoul branch, which is the largest prosecutors' office nationwide, is threatened, it will cause delays to probes and trials and inconvenience the public.

The senior officials said that the DP pushing ahead with the move while such situation is well predicted to eventuate is disregarding the constitutional spirit of the separation of the three powers, and called for an immediate halt to such actions.

Appearing before the parliament's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, Justice Minister Park Sung-jae called on lawmakers to impeach him instead of the prosecutors.

Park Sung-jae/ Justice Minister
If they are seeking political accountability, it's better to impeach or dismiss the justice minister, the top overseer of prosecutorial affairs.

The main opposition is eyeing to impeach three prosecutors in connection with the not guilty verdict on first lady Kim Keon-hee. They are Lee Chang-soo, chief of the Seoul prosecutors' office and senior members Jo Sang-won and Choi Jae-hoon.

The DP plans to report an impeachment motion to the plenary session Monday and vote on the bill Wednesday.