[Editorial] Natural step

In a speech at the plenary session of the National Assembly Monday, Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, vowed to give up his privilege as a lawmaker of being able to avoid a pre-trial detention hearing.

In Korea, the prosecution is required to seek consent from the National Assembly on the detention of its members when the Assembly is in session. Consent is given if the majority of Assembly members attend the voting session and the majority of those members present approve the prosecution‘s request.

If the Assembly consents, the accused lawmaker must go before a judge, who decides whether to detain him. If the Assembly rejects the request, the detention hearing cannot take place and the indicted lawmaker can stand trial without going into custody.

This is a privilege of Korean lawmakers. If prosecutors request a warrant for detention against members of the general public, the accused must go to court.

This privilege played a role of protecting opposition politicians from suppression under past authoritarian regimes. Times have changed. Now that the nation has been democratized, there is a strong public opinion that it must be abolished. Some politicians sympathize with calls for abolition. Lee himself pledged to repeal the privilege during his presidential campaign.

The current Assembly has so far held voting sessions on warrants of detention for eight lawmakers including Lee, and has denied consent for half of them. All of the four lawmakers who avoided detention either belong to the Democratic Party or belonged to it until recently. The party has a 167-seat majority in the 300-seat Assembly.

In December last year, the prosecution‘s request for a detention hearing on Rep. Noh Woong-rae, who was charged with taking bribes, was voted down. Recently, requests for detention hearings on Reps. Youn Kwan-suk and Lee Sung-man were also rejected. Both of them are former Democratic Party lawmakers who turned independent after being charged with bribery. On the other hand, requests for two ruling party lawmakers were approved.

This vote outcome gives an impression that the Democratic Party is defending its Assembly members from detention almost blindly.

The prosecution requested a detention hearing on the party leader accused in connection with alleged land development irregularities and illegal donations to a municipal soccer club, all of which happened while he was mayor of Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. The National Assembly took a vote on the request on Feb. 27.

At the time, the collective opinion of Democratic Party lawmakers was to vote it down, but some of them are said to have argued that Lee should give up the privilege and attend the hearing of his own accord. Lee did not follow this opinion.

His decision to give up on the privilege is a natural step, though belated.

But it is shameless for him to promise as if he made a hard decision, without a word of apology for already using the privilege as a means to avoid custody.

Lee is currently on trial without detention thanks to the privilege. The prosecution is investigating allegations related to other land development projects and of illegal remittance to North Korea, all of which happened while he was mayor of Seongnam and later Gyeonggi governor. His avowal to give up on the privilege must be put into practice at least regarding cases involving him. Now that its leader renounced it, the Democratic Party has no justification to vote blindly against detention hearings on its Assembly members.

One of the two People Power Party lawmakers who had to appear in a courtroom for detention hearings was released and stands trial without being held on remand. Lawmakers of both ruling and opposition parties only need to follow the same procedure as members of the general public do. Also, Lee‘s promise must also lead to a debate in the Assembly on the abolition of the privilege.