"Salmon Drinking Party" Ruled False... Special Counsel Bill and Prosecutor Disciplinary Push Lose Momentum

"No Alcohol Was Provided," Jury Finds
Ewha Young Convicted of Perjury at National Assembly Hearing

The court has determined that the allegations of a "salmon drinking party" involving Ewha Young, the former Vice Governor for Peace of Gyeonggi Province, are false. As a result, efforts by the ruling party to push for a special counsel bill on fabricated indictments and disciplinary proceedings against Prosecutor Park Sangyong are expected to face setbacks.

On the 14th, at the National Assembly's Special Committee on the National Investigation into the Political Prosecution and Fabricated Indictment Allegations under the Yoon Suk-yeol Administration, a hearing related to the Ssangbangwool North Korea remittance case was held, attended by former Gyeonggi Province Vice Governor for Peace Lee Hwa-young and others. April 14, 2026. Photo by Kim Hyunmin

On June 20, the 11th Criminal Division of the Suwon District Court (Presiding Judge Song Byunghoon) sentenced the former vice governor to four months in prison in a jury trial for violating the Act on Testimony and Appraisal before the National Assembly (perjury). The jury's verdict was split, with four finding her guilty and three not guilty. However, the court confirmed the conviction, stating, "The statements of the prosecutor's office personnel were consistent, while the defendant's testimony lacked credibility." This ruling marks the first judicial judgment on the "salmon drinking party" allegations, two years and two months after they were raised. The former vice governor first claimed during an April 2024 trial that she had been pressured to change her testimony by drinking with Kim Seongtae and others in a room near the prosecutor's office.

With the court concluding that the former vice governor's claims were false, the ruling party's justification for alleging that the prosecution's investigation was fabricated has also weakened. Until now, the Democratic Party of Korea had taken the lead in raising these suspicions, holding a hearing on the impeachment of Prosecutor Park Sangyong and launching a parliamentary investigation. During the parliamentary investigation, they even checked the distance between a convenience store near the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office and the building itself by purchasing soju and walking the route.

The momentum for the "special counsel bill on fabricated indictments" is also expected to diminish. This bill, which contains a provision to withdraw charges in the President Lee Jaemyung case, was already rescheduled for consideration to after the June 3 local elections due to controversy over it being a "self-pardon." However, with the court not acknowledging the allegations, the very basis for the bill's passage has been undermined.

The level of disciplinary action for Prosecutor Park Sangyong, currently under review by the Ministry of Justice, will inevitably be affected as well. Previously, following internal investigations by the Ministry of Justice and a human rights task force at the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office requested a two-month suspension for Prosecutor Park. At the time, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office acknowledged lapses in supervision that allowed alcohol to be brought in, but stated that it was difficult to hold Prosecutor Park personally responsible and excluded this from the grounds for disciplinary action. Now, the court has denied that alcohol was provided at all. As a result, should the Ministry of Justice seek harsher disciplinary action, it may face criticism for conducting an excessive investigation.

Activities of the Ministry of Justice’s Prosecutorial Human Rights and Future Committee (Prosecutors’ Future Committee), which was launched to investigate alleged abuses of prosecutorial power, are also expected to be scaled back. The newly launched committee had selected the Ssangbangwool North Korea remittance case as its first investigation, but most analysts agree that it will be difficult to reach conclusions contrary to the court's ruling.

This verdict will make it difficult for the ruling party to raise further objections, as the judgment was directly based on the jury's findings. Legal experts point out that, despite repeated hearings, parliamentary investigations, and court proceedings, no evidence has surfaced to support the claims of a drinking party, and that the credibility of the former vice governor's testimony has only diminished.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.