Seoul: Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho has requested disciplinary action against two prosecutors who stormed out of a high-profile perjury trial in protest of allegedly unfair court proceedings last year, the ministry said Friday. The move comes after an internal inspection into the actions of four prosecutors from the Suwon District Prosecutors Office, who abruptly left a pretrial hearing following the court's rejection of their request to call witnesses in November 2025. Before their exit, the team filed a motion to disqualify the bench over claims of unfair proceedings.

According to Yonhap News Agency, two of the prosecutors have since resigned and received ministerial warnings, while disciplinary proceedings will continue for the remaining two. The incident occurred during the trial of Lee Hwa-young, a former vice governor of Gyeonggi Province, who was sentenced to four months in prison for giving false testimony to parliament in 2024. Lee alleged that prosecutors offered him and a businessman food and alcohol during interrogations to coerce false statements incriminating current President Lee Jae Myung, who was Gyeonggi governor at the time of an alleged 2019 illegal remittance to North Korea.

Following the courtroom walkout, President Lee Jae Myung ordered a strict investigation into the prosecutors' actions. While an inspection committee of the Supreme Prosecutors Office concluded in April that disciplinary action would be challenging, the justice ministry decided to proceed with its own request based on internal findings. The final sanctions will be determined by the ministry's disciplinary committee, chaired by Jung.