The law concerning organization of the Secretariat of the President's Office appears to allow the creation of inspection teams to review facts to support determinations on whether a matter needs to be referred for criminal investigation to prosecutors for legal process. The law is conditional on the judgement of the secretariat. Where evidence of guilt requiring compulsory legal disposition is limited the office of the Secretariat has that discretionary power. That's what the bold print cited by the reporter suggests. So it looks like Cho Guk's interpretation of the law when he was the Chief Secretary for Civil Affairs is correct. The law seems pretty straightforward as reported by Jang Yom-jin.
Only the factual issue remains whether or not the known evidence of guilt of a criminal violation by the vice mayor of Pusan, Yoo Jae-soo, was strong enough to overcome the discretion of the Presidential Secretariat and move their determination, that the case not be prosecuted, into a clear case of abuse of power. The failure of the evidence of Yoo's wrongdoing to be leaked by conservative prosecutors to the traditional conservative press after this length of time suggests that Cho Guk's decision wasn't an abuse of office. (The improper press-prosecution combination is described as 언검 유착. ) There are only summary allegations of receipt of gifts and favors, from parties with interests before Yoo's offices but no specifics thus far. This suggests the case against Cho Guk is stumbling.
It appears from this law, and the reports from the trial venue, that the pattern of unjustly framed political prosecutions by the Yoon faction is being borne out. Rather than the Blue House substituting its decision making powers for the Office of the Supreme Prosecutor, the opposite seems to be the case, where the Supreme Prosecutor's office is substituting it's judgement for the Office of the President. Now the political objective of Yoon and his former LKP, now Tong Hap Mirae Dang supporters, on the far right becomes clear. The strategy represented in a phrase previously heard on conservative broadcast media after Justice Minister Cho Guk stepped down, "we caught the fox in the house, now we must get the fox on the mountain." So the prosecution's media strategy of unlawful leaks painting Cho Guk and his family as corrupt as a prelude to removal from office and trial ultimately is part of a larger specific strategy of "impeach Moon Jae-in" evident during demonstrations at Gwanghwamun and Yoido. Those right wing "demos" were only grudgingly discontinued by the Taeguki group, religious fundamentalists and their right wing leaders, after the onset of the covid 19 pandemic. So now Yoon Seok-yeol's political prosecutions are the only political game left for the conservatives soundly defeated in last general election.
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