“Lawyers for a Democratic Society evaluate first year of Yoon Seok-yeol administration as a year of regression and criticism”

The Lawyers for a Democratic Society (Minbyun) evaluated the first year of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration as a year in which the Prosecution Republic appeared and reforms in all areas of society disappeared. On the morning of the 8th, Minbyun held a ‘1-year analysis and evaluation discussion of the Yoon Seok-yeol government’ in the Minbyun conference room in Seocho-gu, Seoul. The forum was divided into seven policy fields, including justice, labor, public livelihood, disaster response, diplomacy, history, and human rights, and was conducted in a way in which lawyers belonging to MINBYUN gave presentations and exchanged opinions. On this day, Minbyun Chairman Cho Young-seon said, “The year of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration was, in a word, filled with fetters and regression.” It was the ‘judicial field’ that was cited as the most retreating area in the past year. Attorney Chang-Min Lee (Chairman of the Minbyun Judicial Center’s Prosecutor’s Office Reform Subcommittee), who was in charge of the presentation, named the first year of the Yoon government as ‘Prosecution Republic’ and ‘Prosecution Politics’. Attorney Lee said, “Seok-Yeol Yoon’s division is in key positions in the prosecution, such as the Minister of Justice, the Prosecutor General, and the Chief of the Central District Prosecutor’s Office, so unfair investigations and prosecutions continue.” Without investigation, the prosecution is using its power for politics and governance, such as getting a guilty verdict to public opinion by spilling the facts related to the’opposition money bag suspicion’.” He continued, “The Board of Audit and Inspection is concerned with the case of the ‘murder of a public official in the West Sea’. Passing the resolution of the audit committee and announcing illegal audit results“The police have been incapacitated, the National Intelligence Service has returned to the past, the Board of Audit and Inspection has taken the lead in eliminating political opponents, and the courts have been incapacitated. It was just a bystander or passive check,” he added. Labor policies were criticized for leaning toward employers. Attorney Jong-hoon Lee (Director of the Minbyun Labor Relations Commission’s Policy Planning Department) said, “The Yoon government is ignoring the protection of workers in the ‘B’ position and overprotecting employers by defining labor and management as a confrontational relationship.” Repression of labor unions is common, such as the government issuing an order to start work, and the union is trying to monitor every move under government control.” Recently, it has been pointed out that basic countermeasures are neglected in the ‘housing field’, where victims such as charter fraud are following one after another. Attorney Lee Kang-hoon (Minbyun People’s Livelihood Economy Committee) said, “The nationwide charter fraud case shows the current address of the poor housing rights of housing tenants.” The bond purchase plan has been ruled out,” he pointed out. Diplomacy and Korean Peninsula policy have been summarized as a distorted perception of the past and a diplomatic catastrophe. Regarding past issues such as victims of forced labor during the Japanese occupation, lawyer Kwon Tae-yoon (Minbyun Past History Settlement Committee) said, “The ‘third party reimbursement’ that the government reimburses victims of forced labor and their bereaved families on behalf of Japanese companies is a case in which the judgment won by the victims simply disappears when they are reimbursed. It was neglected as a monetary claim,” he said. “The victims are hurt more in the process and the problem is not resolved.” In addition, regarding the Itaewon disaster response, Attorney Cho In-young (Minbyun 10/29 Itaewon Disaster Truth Investigation and Legal Support TF) said, “The reasons why the government did not establish preliminary measures and the on-site rescue process, such as transfer to hospitals, were omitted from the government investigation.” Criticized.

On the 8th, the Lawyers for a Democratic Society held a ‘Discussion on Analysis and Evaluation of the One Year of the Yoon Seok-Yeol Government’ at the Minbyun Conference Room in Seocho-gu, Seoul.

Written and photographed by Kwon Ji-dam, staff reporter gonji@hani.co.kr