Ahn Cheol-soo: "Moon Administration's 'Digging into the Past' Is Not a One-Time Thing"

"'Desperate to Maintain Power During the 'Reform That Gets Criticized' Period'"

Ahn Cheol-soo, Leader of the People Party / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Lim Juhyung] Ahn Cheol-soo, leader of the People’s Party, criticized the Moon Jae-in administration, saying that "'digging up the past' is not a one-time occurrence."

In an interview with Shindonga on the 1st, Ahn said, "We need to think about the future to open the future, but the Moon administration is struggling every day without any standards on how to transition."

He continued, "The Spanish flu, which had no treatment or vaccine, took about three years to disappear," adding, "It seems impossible to return to the same social life as before after the COVID-19 pandemic, but if we set the final goal as a transition to a sustainable form, it seems important which country can reach that first."

He also said, "The necessary measure now is to gather experts from each field to fix what is wrong and institutionalize it to prepare for the future," and criticized, "Now, when the government and ruling party have high approval ratings, it seems like the right time to carry out 'reforms that get criticized,' but the current administration is only spending energy on maintaining power."

Earlier, on the 30th of last month, Ahn described the Democratic Party of Korea’s unilateral formation of the 21st National Assembly’s committee structure as "excessive."

On the same day, appearing live on MBN Newswide in the afternoon, Ahn said, "Even if the opposition holds the chairmanship of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, is there any bill that the ruling party cannot pass with their current number of seats?" He added, "I don’t understand what they are afraid of or why they are so uneasy."

He went on to emphasize, "Both the ruling and opposition parties are composed of lawmakers elected by the people, so they need to respect each other," and "In this ongoing COVID-19 situation with no end in sight, the ruling party’s attitude of concession is more necessary than anything."

Regarding Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, who has been clashing with the ruling party over various issues such as the former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook’s petition case and the Channel A reporter-prosecutor collusion allegations, Ahn previously stated on the 22nd that "the opposition forces need to unite."

On this day, at the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly, Ahn claimed, "The ruling party is trying to oust Yoon Seok-youl," and added, "Before bringing in the pet called the High-ranking Officials’ Crime Investigation Agency, they are trying to muzzle the fierce dog called Prosecutor Yoon Seok-youl."

He urged, "Let the conscientious opposition jointly submit a National Assembly resolution to prohibit the persecution of Prosecutor General Yoon and to call for the fair performance of duties by the Minister of Justice."

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