Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, indicted over allegations that polling costs were paid on his behalf in the Myung Tae-kyun case, was acquitted on appeal. On the 23rd, the Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 7, presided over by Ku Hoe-keun, overturned the lower court's guilty verdict in the trial of Oh on charges of violating the Political Funds Act, saying it was "difficult to conclude that there are sufficient grounds to trust parts of Myung Tae-kyun's testimony, or that other evidence corroborating that testimony has been adequately presented." The only direct evidence on the central issue in the case was Myung's testimony, and the court found that account hard to believe.
The appellate ruling laid bare how weak the indictment brought by special counsel Min Joong-ki's team was. The special counsel indicted Oh in December last year on charges of violating the Political Funds Act without detaining him. Questions arose at the time over whether political motives lay behind the move, with the Seoul mayoral election set for June this year, but the special counsel pressed ahead regardless. The appeal, the final stage at which the facts are weighed, made clear that this was a flawed investigation and indictment resting solely on Myung's testimony without sufficient credible evidence. In effect, the prosecution ended up dancing to the tune of a single political broker.
The rival parties must not seize on the appellate ruling as fresh material for partisan combat and inflame the dispute further. The special counsel has signaled plans to appeal to the Supreme Court, so the right course is to await that final decision. Even so, the Democratic Party of Korea protested that the ruling "does not meet the public's expectations," while the People Power Party called it "justice served." At the first trial, the ruling party had said "justice served," and the People Power Party had hit back by calling it a "political verdict." The two sides reversed their positions entirely depending on how the court ruled, turning legal judgment into a tool of partisan warfare and reading it to suit their own political interests. This is the twisted face of Korean politics.
Now is the time for both parties to set aside the draining political fight over Oh's trial and channel the nation's energy into reviving the economy for ordinary households. With home prices climbing and jeonse (a lump-sum deposit lease) and monthly rents under strain, owner-occupier buyers and tenants are being pushed into buying homes just to secure a roof. In a job market where the narrow door has become a closed one, young adults are growing weary. Small business owners and the smallest self-employed operators are struggling even to keep up with interest payments amid high prices and high rates. Both parties should not forget that what deserves more of their attention than Oh's trial is the verdict that voters will deliver on politics itself.