December 24, the 12th Chamber of Seoul Administrative Court of South Korea ruled that South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s decision to suspend Attorney General Yoon Seok-yue for two months was invalid. Therefore, Yin Xiyue returned to work eight days after being suspended on December 17.
According to a report by South Korea’s Central Daily on December 25, the suspension of Yoon Seok-yue was submitted by Law Minister Qiu Mei-ai on December 16 and approved by Moon Jae-in. It took effect at 00: 00 on December 17.
On November 24, Qiu Meiai announced the suspension of Attorney General Yin Xiyue and demanded that he be punished. This is the first time in South Korea’s history that the Attorney General has been suspended from office by the Minister of Justice. Yoon Seok-yue returned to work on December 1 after being suspended for a week by order of Seoul Administrative Court.
The report pointed out that Yin Xiyue’s previous suspension for a week can be regarded as a contradiction between Yin Xiyue and Qiu Meiai. The suspension from December 17th is a direct conflict between Yoon Seok-yue and Moon Jae-in.
The report believes that although Tsing Wadai said that Moon Jae-in only approved the disciplinary decision of the Ministry of Justice, Moon Jae-in, when he met with important people from five different departments the day before the suspension, revealed that the decision largely reflected his will.
When reading the judgment, Judge Hong Chunyu, the Minister of Seoul Administrative Court, pointed out that there were problems in the process of the Ministry of Justice’s decision on disciplinary.
The court found that the number of members of the Procuratorial Correctional Committee of the Ministry of Justice did not reach a quorum, and the disciplinary decision made by the Committee itself was invalid.
The report pointed out that Qiu Meiai, as the Minister of Justice, had suffered “three consecutive defeats”: on December 1, the Supervisory Commission of the Ministry of Justice found that the punishment and suspension order against General Yin was improper; on the same day, the Administrative Court decided to reinstate General Yin; on the 24th, the court ruled that the relevant disciplinary decision was invalid.
Qiu Meiai is currently in an awkward situation. It is speculated that Qingwatai is likely to accept the resignation letter of Minister Aki Meiai and immediately start screening for a new Minister of Justice.
Minister Qiu visited Qingwatai on December 16 and requested Moon Jae-in for approval of the two-month suspension of office against Yoon Seok-yue, and submitted his resignation on the spot. However, Minister Qiu is expected to continue to perform the ministerial duties until the new Minister of Justice is determined to take office.
The Paper reported earlier that the trigger of this round of “Qiu Yin’s dispute” dates back to January this year. As a senior female politician of the ruling party of South Korea’s ruling party, the Communist Party of Korea, Qiu Meiai replaced Cao Guo, who resigned due to the children’s admission scandal, as Minister of Justice.
At the beginning of her term, in response to Moon Jae-in’s instructions, she transferred 32 officials at the level of attorney general within a week, most of whom were demoted, causing Yin Xiyue’s staff team to be “greatly changed”.
For Yin Xiyue, losing his confidant and being asked to accept Qiu Meiai’s face-to-face questioning is an unprecedented impact on the always “high” Attorney General.
It is reported that Moon Jae-in aspired to “use a knife” against the procuratorial system at the beginning of his rule, which intensified the confrontation between the Ministry of Justice and the prosecutorial system, and judicial reform stood at a crossroads.
