South Korean President Lee Jae-myung said on Thursday that giving up command and supervision of the new Serious Crimes Investigation Office would violate the constitution and the Government Organization Act and amount to grounds for impeachment, according to 경향신문. In a post on X, the president also defended his earlier reference to Google's Gemini chatbot, saying he cited it to show how weak the opposing argument was rather than out of ignorance.
The remarks came a day after Lee used the same platform to call claims that the heads of the investigation office and the prosecution service should not attend cabinet meetings an "unconstitutional stretch" that denies Article 11 of the Government Organization Act, 경향신문 reported.
Why it matters
The dispute centers on whether the heads of law enforcement bodies should sit in on regular cabinet sessions. The first attendance by newly appointed investigation chief Kim Ji-yong on October 20 triggered questions about propriety, and the president has spent consecutive days rebutting those concerns directly on social media. Critics say that level of response is inflating a manageable controversy, while the presidential office argues the criticism misreads both the law and the president's intent.
Lee framed the issue in constitutional terms. He wrote that every ministry, agency and office — whether prosecution, weather or fire services — is placed under the direction and supervision of the president and the prime minister by the constitution and the Government Organization Act, according to 경향신문. That authority, he added, is both a right and a responsibility.
He went further, saying that abandoning oversight of the investigation office would be not only an impeachable offense but also a crime punishable as dereliction of duty. Excluding the agency's leadership from open meetings, he argued, is not a rational way to secure political neutrality.
Blue House backs the president
The presidential office held a separate briefing to reinforce Lee's position. Seong Ki-hong, senior secretary for public communication, told reporters at the Chunchugwan press room that treating attendance at cabinet meetings as political control over or interference in a investigative body does not fit the purpose of how the current government runs those meetings, 경향신문 reported.
On the Gemini episode, Seong said the president had used the chatbot as a way to locate constitutional and legal provisions — asking it a question, checking what the facts showed and then offering his own view. Claims that the country is being run by artificial intelligence distort that, he said. MBC and JTBC both reported the Blue House's expression of regret over what it called a misleading account.
The president's own explanation was blunt. He said he had not quoted Gemini because he did not know the answer, but so that people could judge for themselves how far the argument strayed from basic logic and established fact.
Pushback from within and outside the government
Not everyone in the president's camp welcomed the escalation. Park Jiwon, a lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party, said on BBS radio and elsewhere that Lee should get more sleep, and that he had publicly asked the new chief of staff to manage the president's mood. Park acknowledged that speaking directly to the public has a positive side but said the president should use the language of a president.
Choi Chang-ryul, a specially appointed professor at Yongin University, questioned the strategy in a phone interview with 경향신문. He asked whether it was necessary for the president to raise impeachment, a sensitive subject, and said that regardless of who is right, it is unclear what political benefit the move brings.
The main opposition People Power Party also weighed in, characterizing Lee's comments as a declaration that he intends to direct investigations, according to Yonhap News Agency.
What to watch
The immediate question is whether the investigation office's leadership continues to attend cabinet meetings as usual, and whether the opposition turns the president's impeachment remark into a formal line of attack. The Blue House has shown no sign of softening its defense, and Lee has treated the matter as a constitutional principle rather than a scheduling question — a posture that keeps the dispute in the open for now.
