People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won on Friday called on Justice Minister Jung Seok-jun to resign over a plan to abolish prosecutors' supplementary investigation powers, saying that knowingly allowing harm to befall the public amounted to "a clear dereliction of duty."
In a Facebook post that day, Na said she understood that serving as justice minister under what she called "the criminal-president Lee Jae Myung administration" was "exhausting and difficult," and that Jung found himself trapped between his own convictions and fierce pressure from hardliners within the party.
She then turned her fire directly on Jung. "Asking the opposition party to raise the problems with abolishing supplementary investigation powers at the Legislation and Judiciary Committee is not something that Jung Seok-jun, the minister of justice and the top official responsible for prosecutorial affairs and human rights protection, should be saying," she said, adding: "Isn't the justice minister himself the person with primary responsibility to raise the problem and stop it?"
Na went on to say that Jung knew better than anyone what was at stake. "Was it not precisely the prosecutors' supplementary investigation that broke through the organized police cover-up in the Jang Yun-gi case?" she said. "If supplementary investigations disappear, the grievances of powerless victims and their bereaved families will be buried forever."
Na warned that Jung could face serious legal consequences if he allowed what she described as the destruction of the judicial system. "If you are dragged along by the unreasonable demands of the president and the party and allow this judicial destruction to go unchecked, it will be difficult to escape painful criminal punishment in the future as an accomplice in undermining the constitutional order," she said. "Power is fleeting, but the rule of law and the judgment of the people are eternal."
She also said that if Jung lacked the courage to raise the problem and stop it himself, he should at least refuse to go along with what she called a "rule-of-law destruction that will remain a stain," and step down with his head held high. "That is the only way to protect Minister Jung Seok-jun's honor and to protect the aggrieved public," she said.
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