Seoul politics still ridden with control, deception

Controversy over the resignation of the prosecutor general, Chae Dong-wook, has swept the country. Led by a major conservative newspaper, some conservatives are accusing Chae of having an extramarital affair and fathering a child through it. The opposition parties and some liberal newspapers suspect that Cheong Wa Dae leaked files to the conservative daily to damage the character of the chief in the court of public opinion and force him out of his post. Some pundits claim that Chae was at odds with President Park Geun-hye’s office ever since he did not take special action to call off a probe into the alleged wrongdoing of the National Intelligence Service in the 2012 presidential election.

There has been a series of politically explosive events in Korea this year. The NIS director in the previous government allegedly ordered his agents to disseminate conservative and hawkish rhetoric on North Korea in some social network venues to influence public opinion in favor of the candidate Park. Amid the political crisis, the NIS also arrested Lee Seok-ki of the United Progressive Party for violating the National Security Law and for treason.

The development of the scandal presents two intriguing narratives. The first is that Chae violated the code of conduct as a key member of the executive branch of the government. The national consensus is if Chae had an affair outside his marriage and concealed it when confronted by the media, he should be removed. This sentiment, too, seems true in other countries. For example, three powerful politicians in the U.S. ― Mark Sanford, Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer ― were involved in sexual relations outside their marriages and had to resign their positions. Sanford resigned as the chairman of the Republican Governors Association after his extramarital affair with his Argentine mistress. Weiner had served a New York congressional district, but he resigned from office after his sexting scandal. Although Weiner saved his marriage, he lost the trust of voters. Spitzer resigned as the governor of New York after a prostitution scandal.

The ethnical and professional responsibilities of prosecutors are such that the prosecutors should maintain high moral standards and be free from corruption. This could be the part of the reason why Cheong Wa Dae might have framed Chae’s resignation as the self-serving outcome of personal misconduct regardless of his political inclination or lack thereof.

The second narrative is Cheong Wa Dae flirted with the idea of picking the prosecutor general who has close political ties with the president’s inner circle and initiated discreet research to oust Chae. Some liberal mass media suggested that the political turmoil is the outcome of a smear campaign orchestrated by Cheong Wa Dae and the NIS to topple Chae, who earned the trust of the rank-and-file members of the prosecution for his independent stance against outside political influences. In this case, the political influence is warranted; any court verdict that the NIS indeed participated in a secret campaign to influence the presidential election could undermine the legitimacy of the current government and further weaken the capacity of the presidential office to govern.

In essence, the controversy surrounding Chae has more to do with a political battle between those who believe in the democratic process versus those who believe in old values in politics. Ironically, the prosecutor’s love affair, if true, might be the least serious offense and probably looks rather pale in comparison to other alleged wrongdoings committed by government officials.

In modern Korean politics, some words are used to carry more weight than others: factionism, partisanship, bribes, cronyism, communist phobia, power and control, deception, and intransigence. However, there is a growing recognition for new political values including shared governance, equity, collaboration, transparency and integrity. President Park can best govern when she commits to the separation of powers and ensures the prosecutor is shielded from political interference. A worrying signal in the current development of the prosecutor general’s resignation is that the presidential office has demonstrated little capacity to cut ties with the old political values of the past. Whether or not Chae committed adultery and fathered an son may forever stay an enticing mystery for tabloids in Korea. However, what remains clear is that Seoul politics still live in the past ridden with deception, control, and intimidation.

By Lim Woong

Lim Woong is an assistant professor at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia. He can be reached at wlim2@kennesaw.edu. ― Ed.