South Korea’s president curbs the power of prosecutors

JEJU, AN ISLAND off South Korea’s southern coast, is known for its hiking trails, temperate climate and the tough old women who dive off its cliffs for abalone, a delicacy popular with the glitterati in Seoul, the faraway capital. It is also popular with political leaders in search of a spot to sideline troublemakers. The rulers of the Joseon dynasty, for instance, used to send insubordinate aristocrats there to stop them from meddling in politics.

This week Park Chan-ho found himself reassigned to Jeju. Mr Park’s previous job was at the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office in Seoul, where he had been investigating allegations that the government had interfered in mayoral elections in the southern city of Ulsan in 2018. His colleague Han Dong-hoon, who had been leading an investigation into alleged nepotism and financial irregularities in the affairs of Cho Kuk, a former justice minister who resigned in the autumn, was moved to Busan, another traditional place of banishment.