Han Dong-hoon Brings Up the 'Rice Paddy Watch,' and Both Ruling and Opposition Parties Erupt
When independent Rep. Han Dong-hoon dragged the 'rice paddy watch' back into the center of national politics, both the ruling and opposition parties erupted at once. The Democratic Party of Korea responded, "He is the devil incarnate," while Cho Kuk, head of the Innovation Policy Research Institute, fired back calling it "an act against humanity." Kwak Sang-eon, a Democratic lawmaker and son-in-law of the late President Roh Moo-hyun, publicly counterattacked, telling Han to "show me the facts directly."
The remark touched on an incident from 17 years ago. At a forum at the National Assembly on December 1 on the implementation of the revised Criminal Procedure Act, Rep. Han argued that after former President Roh's death, the case was packaged as if even the alleged bribery was fabricated, creating a 'myth of Roh Moo-hyun as a victim of a rigged investigation.' The next day, on December 2, he reiterated on social media that it was a 'fact' that Roh himself or his family received two Piaget watches worth some 300 million won and tens of billions of won from Park Yeon-cha, chairman of Taekwang Industrial. He argued that whether the watch was thrown into a rice paddy or discarded elsewhere was irrelevant to the substance. On December 3, he went further, claiming that 'the myth of Roh Moo-hyun as a victim was created by Democratic political forces who exploited him.'
The so-called rice paddy watch incident refers to the controversy over the public disclosure of suspicions and media manipulation that emerged during prosecutors' 2009 investigation of former President Roh. At the time, prosecutors probed allegations that Roh's side had received expensive luxury watches from Chairman Park Yeon-cha, and reports circulated in the media suggesting that his wife Kwon Yang-suk had thrown a watch into a rice paddy. The rigged-investigation controversy flared up in 2015, when former senior prosecutor Lee In-gyu, then head of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Central Investigation Department, claimed in a media interview that the reporting had been orchestrated by the National Intelligence Service. That uproar became a driving force behind the current abolition of the Prosecutors' Office and the launch of a new criminal justice system.
On December 2, the Democratic Party, in a written briefing by spokesperson Cho Gye-won, characterized Han's remarks as "a brazen act of criminal defamation of the dead." Spokesperson Cho pointed out that "President Roh denied the allegations, but the malicious public disclosure of the rice paddy watch suspicions drove him to his death." He added, "Kwon Yang-suk and Roh Geon-ho were questioned only as references, and no family member was ever indicted," criticizing, "A former prosecutor calls suspicions from an investigation stage 'facts.' He is the devil incarnate." He also emphasized that a 2017 investigation by the NIS Reform and Development Committee found that the intelligence agency at the time had proposed leaking the luxury watch allegations to the media as a way to strike at Roh.
Cho Kuk also took to Facebook on December 2, calling it "an act against humanity" and accusing Han of dishonoring the deceased, emboldened by his standing as a leading presidential contender. "We are all 'residents' of Roh Moo-hyun," Cho said, signaling that Han's claims would not be tolerated. On December 3, Democratic Rep. Kwak Sang-eon joined the fray with a post titled 'Replying to Han Dong-hoon.' Saying that he, as Roh's lawyer and an investigation subject in 2009, cannot know how much of the prosecution announcement and reporting was true, Kwak pledged to take responsibility if Han could verify the facts.
Former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo attacked Han on Facebook on December 2, calling him "a man who was once Moon Jae-in's hunting dog, then betrayed Yoon Suk-yeol, whom he had raised for 20 years, twice devastating the conservative camp." The day before, he had written, "The abolition of the Prosecutors' Office is a tragedy born of the political prosecution of Yoon Suk-yeol and Han Dong-hoon and President Lee Jae-myung's personal desire for revenge." The clash over abolishing the Prosecutors' Office has thus spread even within the conservative camp.
Given the timing of the remarks, some interpret them as targeting 'the political trajectory from the prosecutors' investigation, to the rigged-investigation controversy, to the demonization of prosecutors and the abolition of the Prosecutors' Office' — and by extension, the legitimacy of that abolition itself. With the first abolition of the Prosecutors' Office in 78 years and the launch of a new criminal justice system just ahead, the resurrection of the rice paddy watch dispute as a political issue is likely to shape the course of the debate over abolishing the prosecution.
