The 18th presidential election brought cries across the board for political reform.

All major candidates vowed to mend Korea’s political system, fight high-level corruption and bridge the deepening divides among electorates, regions and generations.

Park Geun-hye’s election is generally attributed to her resolve to push drastic changes in politics, long experience in the parliament and her track record of keeping her promises.

Political reform is expected to dominate her early domestic agenda after taking office on Feb. 25.

Park’s main objectives will be achieving national unity, eradicating corruption, enhancing checks and balances, and reforming party and parliamentary systems.

Park’s political reform pledges contained many of the elements that were common to the campaigns of independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo and Democratic United Party nominee Moon Jae-in in varying degrees.

Park’s mission statement for political reform is “creating a political culture that puts the public’s happiness first.”

One of the main items of the Saenuri Party’s political reform plans is changing the process by which election candidates are chosen.

The selection process for parliamentary candidates has been criticized for being open to corruption for some time.

After last year’s general election, the Saenuri Party and the left-wing Unified Progressive Party became mired in far-reaching scandals that led to drawn-out investigations of ruling party officials, and a major crisis for the UPP.

As such, Park has promised to make simultaneous open primaries for candidates compulsory for all parties. The new rules will also require the parties to select the candidates for a general election two months before polling day. The parties will be required to finalize their presidential candidates at least four months before the election.

In addition, those found to have taken bribes over related matters will be fined 30 times the value of the bribe.

With regards to the National Assembly, Park’s plans are aimed mainly at reducing the power held by the lawmakers, another area over which the presidential contenders were in agreement.

Measures Park plans include limiting the legal protection lawmakers have over what they say in the Assembly, and abolishing the clause that requires parliamentary approval to arrest lawmakers.

National unity is one of Park’s main objectives, and one the president-elect has managed to develop to a certain degree, at least in outward appearance, during her campaign by recruiting progressive heavyweights such as Hahn Hwa-kap and Han Gwang-ok.

However, the significance of Han and Hahn’s move goes beyond simple changing of colors by two progressive politicians.

Both Han and Hahn are of the Donggyo-dong faction ― the group of late President Kim Dae-jung supporters within the proto-political organization established in 1984 in collaboration with former President Kim Young-sam.

The two men are among Kim Dae-jung’s longest-lasting and closest allies, along with Kim Ok-du and DUP adviser Kwon Roh-kap.

Hahn has even earned the name “Little DJ” for his ties to the late former president.

However, the task of achieving social and political unity will require more than recruiting big names from the opposition.

Although Park was the first candidate to win a presidential election with more than 50 percent of the votes, closer analysis reveals strong opposition in some areas.

She is the first conservative politician to have gained more than 10 percent of the Jeolla provinces ― the traditional stronghold of the progressives ― but the vast majority of the region’s voters chose Democratic United Party’s Moon Jae-in despite his relatively weak hold on the region.

In addition to the regional divide, this year’s election was marked by a clear age-divide, with about 70 percent of the oldest voters choosing Park, while a similar proportion of the youngest groups voted for Moon.

Prosecution reform

The incoming leader also promises sweeping changes in the prosecutors’ offices, focusing on four areas: altering the personnel management system to procure more independence and neutrality; outlawing corrupt prosecutors; downsizing and increasing oversight of prosecutorial jurisdiction; and adjudicating the investigative powers shared between the police and prosecution.

Perhaps the most anticipated item of reform is the disbanding of the Central Investigation Department in the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office, the most powerful investigative unit within prosecution.

As the prosecution service’s most elite corps of prosecutors, the department has investigated some of the country’s most powerful political and business figures. But it has also been accused of being the attack dog of incumbent powers by undertaking politically biased investigations.

“I will abolish the Central Investigation Department in the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office,” Park told reporters in early November last year. “I will create a prosecution that serves on the side of the people, follows the law and conscience on the side of justice, and unperturbed by the political and economic powers.”

To expand neutrality and independence of the prosecution service, Park pledged to relegate the power to appoint the prosecutor general, which the president currently holds, to a special committee sanctioned by the National Assembly and to localize the promotional appointment powers.

“There is a need to appoint a prosecutor-general who can maintain political neutrality and also take a flexible position toward prosecution reforms,” said Lee Jin-young, who heads the legal oversight team at People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy.

To deal with corrupt prosecutors, Park proposed reducing the years that the periodic character and fitness tests were administered, appointing non-prosecutors as oversight officials, and stopping corrupt prosecutors from working as lawyers for a set period of time after they leave public office.

Park has called for the investigative powers previously concentrated in the Central Investigation Department to be distributed to special investigation units in each district and branch prosecutors’ offices.

Regarding the perennial problem of close relatives and confidants of the president being mired in corruption scandals, which has affected every administration since the transition to civilian rule in 1987, Park proposed establishing a special inspector’s office and a permanent special prosecutor’s office.

Independent from the prosecution, the special inspector would keep oversight over the relatives and the confidants of the president. If charges emerge, the inspector would relay them to the permanent special prosecutor, who would undertake the investigations.

The police figure in Park’s policy pledges as a balancing force that would keep the prosecution in check. Park has called for reducing the direct investigative powers of the prosecution and increasing the independence of the investigative powers of the police by separating investigation from indictment. 

By Choi He-suk and Samuel Songhoon Lee
(cheesuk@heraldcorp.com) (songhoon@heraldcorp.com">cheesuk@heraldcorp.com) (songhoon@heraldcorp.com)