South Korea’s Presidential Office Weighs Legal Action Over Prosecution Reform Claims

South Korea’s presidential office is considering a legal response to writer and political commentator Yoo Si-min after he accused President Lee Jae Myung of misleading the public over prosecution reform, according to a report published Thursday.

The dispute centers on how Lee has described the separation of investigative and prosecutorial powers, a long-running and politically divisive reform issue. An official in the governing camp said the presidential office viewed Yoo’s claims seriously because it believed they distorted Lee’s intentions and presented a factually inaccurate account of his position.

At a press conference on Sept. 18, Lee said the original maximum goal of prosecution reform was to separate prosecutors who conduct investigations from those responsible for indictments. He described a model in which investigative and prosecutorial bodies would be divided within the Justice Ministry. Lee added that the reform had since advanced further, with prosecutors no longer conducting investigations and investigative agencies instead placed under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

Yoo challenged that account during an appearance on a Media Today YouTube program on Sept. 22. He argued that Lee’s description differed from what reform advocates, the governing Democratic Party and Lee’s campaign pledges had led the public to expect. Yoo said he had never previously heard the president characterize the earlier reform goal in those terms and accused him of deceiving voters.

The presidential office reportedly believes Yoo’s comments could create the false impression that Lee had favored merely splitting investigative and indictment duties inside the existing prosecution organization. Its position is that Lee explicitly endorsed separating the two functions and also acknowledged that the current plan goes beyond the original framework.

The disagreement has wider political implications because it has intensified divisions among supporters of the governing camp. Yoo had also criticized Lee in July, saying the lack of reform progress reflected the president’s reluctance to pursue a complete separation of investigation and prosecution. Presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung rejected that claim at the time, saying Lee and his office had never wavered on the reform’s central principle.

Lee recently urged supporters to stop using ridicule, hateful language and emotional attacks, calling instead for criticism based on facts and persuasion. Any formal legal action against a prominent commentator broadly associated with the governing camp could nevertheless deepen the internal conflict and turn a policy disagreement into a larger debate over political speech and party unity.