Presidential office criticizes opposition-led state auditor, prosecutor impeachment motions

The presidential office on Friday criticized the main opposition party's plan to report impeachment motions for the head of the state audit agency and three prosecutors involved in two different scandals surrounding first lady Kim Keon Hee.

“(The impeachment proposal against the chair of the Board of Audit and Inspection) marks the first of such case in our constitutional history and damages the foundation of the constitutional order,” presidential spokesperson Jeong Hye-jeon said during a press briefing held in the afternoon.

“If the constitutional role of the Board of Audit and Inspection is paralyzed, damage is inflicted on the people,” she added.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea on Thursday announced plans to propose an impeachment motion against Board of Audit and Inspection Chair Choe Jae-hae, during a plenary session scheduled for Monday.

The party’s spokesperson Rep. Noh Jong-myung explained to reporters that Choe failed to comply with the Assembly’s questioning and scrutiny of the controversy surrounding the presidential residence’s relocation in 2022. Critics have accused the state audit agency of failing to look into allegations that the first lady hired her acquaintances, who did not have the licenses to carry out the constructions for the relocation project. Noh cited Choe’s potential violation of the Act on Testimony and Appraisal Before the National Assembly, including the failure to submit requested materials at parliamentary hearings.

Choe on Friday expressed regret at the Democratic Party's decision to propose an impeachment motion against him, calling the move a "political impeachment that damages the foundation of the constitutional order," to reporters in front of the Assembly.

The Democratic Party also plans to introduce impeachment motion against Lee Chang-soo, chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, and two of his deputies during Monday’s plenary meeting.

“It is clearly an impeachment in a form of retaliation to impeach the leadership at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office just because the results of the investigation were not what the opposition wanted,” Jeong said. “We can only see this as an intention to neutralize the country’s judicial system by impeaching prosecutors in an aim to halt investigations and court trials related to the main opposition.

The party has accused the prosecutors of not indicting the first lady over her alleged involvement in a stock price manipulation scandal.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office has indicted Democratic Party of Korea Chair Lee Jae-myung on multiple charges including subornation or perjury. Lee is currently mired in five different court battles.

By law, an impeachment motion should be put to a plenary vote within 24 to 72 hours after it is reported to the first general Assembly session following having been proposed.