Yoon’s ‘rule of law’ becomes useless without value and substance[Editorial]

Kim Han-me, executive director of the Citizens\' Action to Restore Justice (Sasehang), enters the Government Complex in Gwacheon to file a complaint against President Yoon Seok-yul, Justice Minister Park Sung-jae and Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yol with the High Officials\' Crime Investigation Bureau in connection with the departure of Ambassador Lee Jong-seop from Australia, who is under investigation for allegedly \

Warnings have come from outside the country that the Yoon Suk-yeol administration is heading toward dictatorship. The “rule of law” that President Yoon has made a national topic has been useless without value and substance, and criticisms have emerged that government agencies and institutions that are supposed to implement democracy are not functioning normally. It is hard to believe that the country's status has plummeted so much only after one year and 10 months Yoon took office.

The Sweden-based Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) included South Korea among 42 countries in the process of dictatorship in its annual report, Democracy Report 2024, released on March 7. The report ranked South Korea 47th out of 179 countries with a score of 0.6 in the Liberal Democracy Index. Countries with a significant decline in the index are considered a dictatorship-progressing country, and South Korea has fallen significantly from 18th place in 2019 and 28th place in 2022. On March 9, the Berliner Morgenpost, a leading German daily newspaper, also raised concerns about the undermining of democracy, likening Yoon to the former U.S. president, saying "South Korea's Donald Trump is putting an ax on democracy.”

The fact that Lee Jong-sup, the ambassador to Australia, who is amid allegations of tampering with a military investigation into the death of a young Marine Corporal, left the country on the 10th amidst numerous suspicions is an ultimate example that shows the rule of law is undermining. On top of that, the partisan moves of the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) and the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) make us wonder if South Korea is a democratic country. As Yoon refused the appointment of commission members recommended by the opposition parties, the KCC, a five-member consensus system, was reduced to a system of two-member appointed by the ruling party, and the KCSC, which consists of three members each nominated by the president, the speaker of the National Assembly, and the National Assembly, is operating under a deformed "six-to-two-member" system selected by the ruling party and the opposition parties, respectively. Assessment agencies, such as the Board of Audit and Inspection, Public Prosecutors' Office, and the National Police Agency, have also lost their independence as they have been engrossed in investigations of the opposition parties and media being critical to the government. The fact that these agencies are only taking the lead in protecting the regime and have no checks and balances is a sign of authoritarianism.

The operation of government organizations is also riddled with illegalities and expediency. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which President Yoon pledged to abolish during the presidential election, was demoted to the ministry led by a vice minister. Yoon vetoed legislation for the nursing law nine times, but he said he will reconsider the legislation of the law, which is interpreted as a countermeasure of the ongoing medical crisis caused by doctors’ collective action without any clear change of position or apology. Has it been once or twice that enforcement ordinances caused illegal disputes? All of them are resulted from state operations that illegally ignore and bypass the Government Organization Act and the separation of powers.

Who can trust the "rule of law" when it is like a rubber band that is leaning on this side and that side at someone’s convenience? The Yoon administration should take heed of the warnings that the country is heading toward dictatorship, which are ringing inside and outside the country and stop undermining the rule of law and going backwards. I hope Yoon will immediately correct the preferential treatment given to Ambassador to Australia Lee Jong-sup, who left the country after a four-hour brief investigation, and reestablish the rule of law.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.