[News Now] President Yoon's reinvestigation 'refused'...Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit, shall we seek an arrest warrant?

■ Host: Kim Sun-young Anchor, Jung Ji-woong Anchor
■ Starring: Attorney Kim Kwang-sam

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN News Special] when quoting.

[Anchor]
President Yoon Suk Yeol, waiting in solitary confinement in a detention center, is refusing to re-investigate the Airborne Division today. In yesterday's investigation, they exercised their right to remain silent, even requested an arrest investigation, and protested the investigation of the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit. We will talk with lawyer Kim Kwang-sam about related details such as future investigations. Welcome. First of all, President Yoon says he will not respond to the investigation this afternoon, but can the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit enforce this?

[Kim Kwang Sam]
You can force it. But if that happens, there will be a situation of arrest, so I don't think it will be like that. Even if the president is investigated, he is now exercising his right to remain silent. Even before we do our research, we always check ourselves. So I check my name and date of birth, but isn't that actually silent? So investigating the president itself is actually meaningless, so we have to look at it like this. The same will be true of the president.

The investigation by the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit cannot be investigated by an illegal investigation agency because it believes that the investigation by the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit is illegal, the arrest warrant itself is illegal, and the execution of the arrest warrant itself is illegal. You probably have this idea. So, you'd think it's meaningless to investigate because there's nothing to get from President Yoon if you investigate the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit anyway.

[Anchor]
President Yoon asked the Seoul Central District Court to examine his arrest suit, saying that the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit made an illegal arrest. At first, I said I wouldn't request this review, but I think I've changed my position now. Is there a reason?

[Kim Kwang-sam]
There are few cases like this. And in general, there are not many cases of requesting a legality for an arrest warrant. Because arrest warrants are forced to secure recruits for about 48 hours, and arrest warrants are reviewed within 48 hours. Then, the arrest warrant asserts that the arrest was wrong, in terms of time. However, from President Yoon's point of view, the arrest warrant itself is illegal. So, looking at the request for the legality of the arrest warrant, the first is that the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit does not have the right to investigate. The second is that issuing an arrest warrant is illegal, and it is illegal for the police to mobilize in the execution of the arrest warrant itself. Therefore, it seems that he made this claim that the arrest warrant itself is illegal and unfair.

So, once you file an arrest suit with the Seoul Western District Court, it will be dismissed as a result, so the Central District Court, which has original jurisdiction, will examine it fairly from a third party's perspective. So maybe the first thing you don't ask for arrest is that the arrest warrant is only 48 hours in effect. So the time is very short. So, if I ask for an arrest warrant, I will go to the investigation of the arrest warrant and fight. I would have thought that, but there's a problem. The problem is that the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit will request an arrest warrant to the Seoul Western District Court. Then, from the president's point of view, the Western District Court has no jurisdiction, so after much consideration, the only thing that can be filed with the Central District Court is arresting pride. So it's likely that you've changed your mind, so I see it like this.

[Anchor]
I don't know how to do it, but there's a bit of a mystery. The warrant was submitted to the Western District Court, but the legality was submitted to the Central District Court. I guess it's possible like this?

[Kim Kwang Sam]
It's legally possible, but there's probably no precedent at all. So, in principle, there is a court in the legality itself. The judge in charge of the warrant in the court issues an arrest warrant. Then, if the arrest warrant is wrong, the court itself has a separate court to examine it. So the court itself examines it, in fact. However, this arrest warrant itself was done by the Western District Court, and in a way, it can be seen as an independent institution, whether it is the Western District Court or the Central District Court.

The Central District Court will review the arrest warrant again? There could be two cases because this part is not yet legally established. Arrest is not subject to the Central District Court. Then he'll probably resign. However, this is legally ambiguous and the central law can sufficiently examine it. Then you'll probably decide whether to dismiss it or quote it after self-examination.

[Anchor]
Didn't the Western District issue an arrest warrant? But if the Central District Court cites this again through an arrest investigation, will the Western District Court accept it? Or is there another dispute by filing an objection?

[Kim Kwang Sam]
It's very ambiguous. If you do this clearly under the law, you won't know if you do a trial in the exclusive department of the Western District Court's legality examination, but will you accept it if you do it in the Central District Court? That part is ambiguous, too. However, in principle, I have been in the legal profession for more than 30 years, and this has never happened, and there is no regulation itself. I just asked for a warrant from the Airborne Division. But it was claimed to the Western District Court. Then you can send it to the court that examines the arrest warrant without a trial on the arrest suit. There is that regulation, but what would be done in this case? There's a very ambiguous aspect.

[Anchor]
Anyway, you pointed out that there could be confusion between courts.

[Kim Kwang Sam]
Such a problem would not arise if the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit had kept all its jurisdiction, but it did not have the jurisdiction in principle and gave the Western District Court an exceptional provision in the clue. Is the warrant legal or illegal from the current investigation authority? In addition, it can be seen that this confusion is increasing a lot right now, where the legitimacy is.

[Anchor]
In any case, since this is a precedent, the court is likely to have a deeper problem, but President Yoon Suk Yeol is known to have exercised his right to remain silent in the investigation of the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit. It's not that I didn't speak at all, but I didn't answer the question I asked properly, but if this happens, how will the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit not be able to use the statement data when requesting a warrant? What's going to happen?

[Kim Kwang Sam]
Even if I investigate the president anyway, I will deny everything. Then there's not much to gain from the suspect's newspaper report. Of course, the suspect is lying with some evidence. If you put something like that on the record, it can actually be very useful at the warrant stage. And this is not a trial process. It's simply used as data to determine whether or not to be arrested. In later trials, if you exercise your right to silence and then sign it, you don't have the ability to prove it.

So, the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit is also a prerequisite for requesting an arrest warrant, and if the president does not investigate it, there is a high possibility that he will be dismissed if he fails to do so. However, since the president continues to refuse the investigation itself, we had no choice but to investigate it yesterday, but nothing was gained. Then, while requesting an arrest warrant and executing an arrest warrant, in fact, we have already prepared all the data and are in the process of requesting a warrant.

[Anchor]
When President Yoon was under investigation, he marked the suspect in the record, but in the actual investigation process, there is a saying that he was called the president. It can be said that this was also treated with the highest courtesy, right?

[Kim Kwang Sam]
You can say it was treated with respect. However, in general, when investigating, the report becomes a suspect, but there are many cases where the suspect does not call him this well and just investigates. For example, how about lawyer A? Because of the investigation, the name itself is not very meaningful. And anyway, all of them will be listed as suspects in the record. Still, it can be seen that the investigation by calling him the president was treated with respect in terms of title.

[Anchor]
If a warrant request is made, it is impossible to predict when it will be due to an arrest investigation, but if a warrant request is made, do you think President Yoon will go to the warrant review?

[Kim Kwang Sam]
There is a high possibility that he will go to the warrant review, I think so, but he will definitely go if the Central District Court reviews the warrant. However, if the Seoul Western District Court requests a warrant and examines it, the president now says that his jurisdiction has been violated. They say arrest warrants are also illegal. Then, if the Seoul Western District Court goes to the warrant examination, in a way, the jurisdiction itself has been illegal so far, and if a warrant is issued by the Western District Court, it may be difficult to reject. So, if the Central District Court says it will review the warrant, it will definitely leave. Ask for an arrest warrant even before your last arrest. Instead, file a claim with the Central District Court. I made a request like this. But the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit will definitely file a claim with the Seoul Western District Court.

Then you'll probably think about whether it's better to go out or not, but if you don't, an arrest warrant is generally issued almost 100%. So I think I'll think about that. [Anchor] If an arrest warrant is issued, there is an investigation period of about 20 days, but there is an arrest investigation period. By the way, the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit will not use all of this at once, but will investigate it half and half with the prosecutor. How does this work?

[Kwangsam]
We have an arrest warrant issued, so there is an expiration date for the warrant. The police are on the 10th and the prosecution is on the 20th. So, if you extend the arrest period by 10 days and extend it once, it's 20 days. Since the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit is based on the prosecutor, the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit also has the authority to conduct a compulsory investigation for 20 days. However, the prosecution already handed over the case to the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit last time, so let's do it on the 10th and 10th. Because the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit does not have the power to prosecute. That's why the prosecution is prosecuting anyway. Then, the prosecution has to do things like maintaining public prosecution later.

However, the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit investigated and handed over the case, but the investigation itself is very insufficient. Then, from the prosecution's point of view, the prosecution should conduct a supplementary investigation and then prosecute. So if you hand over the case to the prosecution if it's imminent, if the arrest period is imminent, the prosecution doesn't have time to reinforce it. So at that time, the prosecution is probably fully prepared because the agreement was reached that let's do it for 10 days at the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit and the prosecution for 10 days.

[Anchor]
So you end up going around and back to the prosecution?

[Kim Kwang Sam]
[Voiceover] Right. The law is quite mosaic-like. So, if the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit has investigated it, the investigating agency will actually prosecute it. That way, it is right to enter the agency that investigated the maintenance of the prosecution and maintain the prosecution. However, the case itself starts with whether or not it has the authority to investigate, and then it's a matter of jurisdiction, and then the president is arrested and handed over to the prosecution, and the prosecution prosecutes again. This is a mixture of laws, and then the Corruption Investigations Unit Act was not made perfectly as the prosecution and police investigation rights were adjusted. That's why there are so many loopholes.

[Anchor]
It may differ a little depending on the analysis, so we may think that if the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit is insufficient after the investigation, the prosecution may investigate further, but with two subjects like this, isn't there such a critical voice that the investigation itself could be a little poor without context?

[Kim Kwang Sam]
That's right. The law itself has a loophole. For example, if the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit investigates and a warrant is issued or not issued, the case must be handed over to the prosecution unconditionally. Then, if the prosecution has handed over the indictment to the prosecution, there is a question of whether the prosecution has the authority to investigate again. Because I can't prosecute it, so I handed over the case to the prosecution, but the prosecution just needs to prosecute it mechanically, or does it have the authority to investigate it? Overall, it seems that the prosecution has the authority to investigate. So, of course, the prosecution has a monopoly on prosecution, so of course, there is no choice but to conduct a reinforcement investigation while prosecuting.

[Anchor]
If the prosecution moves on to the prosecution and the indictment is made, the question is, if the special prosecutor is launched, for example, what role will the special prosecutor play after the indictment?

[Kim Kwang Sam]
Isn't the special prosecutor a special prosecutor? What kind of organization is the inspection? It's an investigative agency. In fact, the special prosecutor is given by the investigation, not by the maintenance of the prosecution. In a way, it's not a very major state to investigate, prosecute, and then maintain the prosecution the more guilty they are. Also, isn't the purpose of the special prosecutor a fair investigation? But now, President Yoon was arrested, and then the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit investigated him and handed him over to the prosecution. Then, what should the special prosecutor do next? Almost all the people who will be arrested have been arrested.

And it takes as early as two weeks or more than three weeks for the special prosecutor to become a whole. Then, in fact, there is nothing for the special prosecutor to do. Some of the Democratic Party lawmakers say that the maintenance of the prosecution is reflected, but how does the special prosecutor who did not investigate go into the trial and maintain the prosecution? This is also contradictory. So, in practice, the independent counsel should be considered based on the agreement between the ruling and opposition parties. It's not the time to argue that it's not possible, but if you insist on the independent counsel until the end, doesn't it mean that the investigation of the police, prosecutors, and the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit is wrong? Are you saying it wasn't a fair investigation?

The special prosecutor should create a special prosecutor on the premise of that. However, they say they will reveal the truth regardless of that at all, but the truth has already been almost revealed through investigations by the police, prosecutors, and the Senior Civil Servant Corruption Investigations Unit, and the last end is about President Yoon, right? It was executed due to the arrest warrant of President Yoon, and the issuance of the arrest warrant remains, followed by the prosecution process. So, personally, I don't think it's very meaningful to let the special prosecutor pass and not do it now.

[Anchor]
It may be confusing as the number of investigators continues to increase one by one, but the Insurrection Special Prosecutor Act contains foreign exchange charges. You may not be familiar with this foreign exchange crime, so can you explain what it is about?

[Kim Kwang Sam]
In common sense, it is a foreign exchange crime and a foreign exchange attraction crime to conspire with a foreign country and cause an incident in Korea. There are many kinds of foreign exchange crimes. However, the president tried to attract foreign exchange by inducing North Korea's provocation for foreign exchange crimes prepared by the Insurrection Special Prosecutor Act. So I think that's the purpose of trying to start a war. However, there has been no accurate evidence so far, and the president has been suspended and impeached. In that situation, the Ministry of National Defense is denying everything. So why do the opposition parties keep trying to impose foreign exchange attraction charges on the special prosecution law when the evidence is not clear? There must be something on the opposition side.

[Anchor]
I think we need to wait and see the negotiation process later because the people's power is in this position that they will negotiate on their own independent counsel without it. Finally, I think we should talk about the Constitutional Court. First of all, President Yoon requested a change in the hearing date, but it has not been accepted. The President of Yoon Suk Yeol has submitted an additional response today. Looking at this, former Minister Kim Yong-hyun copied the old decree incorrectly. This is what it says. What's the reason for this?

[Kim Kwang Sam]
This has a very important meaning. Because martial law itself is the president's own authority. Is this an act of governance? Then it's not a sin. But this is not the one written in the decree, which is decree number one. That's why political activities of the National Assembly and local councils are not allowed. Then the National Assembly has the right to demand the lifting of martial law. Then, the purpose of preventing the National Assembly from political activities is to prevent the National Assembly from lifting martial law, so this content is included in the National Constitution column in the crime of rebellion.

And the most important reason for the impeachment is the obstruction of the normal activities of the National Assembly and the introduction of martial law forces to the NEC. The National Assembly and the NEC are state agencies. However, preventing the National Assembly itself, which has the right to demand the lifting of martial law among state agencies, from engaging in political activities is a crime of rebellion because this is itself the purpose of national constitutional controversy. This is actually the core of rebellion. So what the president says is that former Minister Kim Yong-hyun copied the previous one.

However, since the previous decree had the authority to dissolve the National Assembly, banning the National Assembly's political activities in decree 1 would not constitute a constitutional dispute. But now the president does not have the right to dissolve the National Assembly.
So banning the National Assembly's political activities in decree No. 1 would be a national constitution. So the president has copied the decree when he had the right to dissolve the National Assembly. I don't have the right to dissolve the National Assembly right now. So I have to fix this, but I couldn't fix it by carelessness. So, from the president's point of view, it was copied incorrectly, and there was no purpose of the national constitution. It seems that they have issued such a response to claim this.

[Anchor]
Anyway, before requesting an arrest warrant, I think we should wait for the results of the arrest investigation. This has been lawyer Kim Kwang-sam. Thank you.