Joo Ho-young "Only Key Figures in the Ruling Party Not Prosecuted... Has the Prosecution Completely Collapsed?"

Joo Ho-young, floor leader of the People Power Party, is attending the floor leaders' meeting held at the National Assembly on the 16th and delivering a speech. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyemin] On the 16th, Joo Ho-young, floor leader of the People Power Party, sharply criticized the prosecution's decision regarding the indictment of current lawmakers for violating the Public Official Election Act, stating, "Key figures in the ruling party such as Yoon Gun-young and Ko Min-jung were all non-prosecuted for unclear reasons."

On the same day, Joo held a floor strategy meeting at the National Assembly and said, "This is an utterly unacceptable decision." The People Power Party filed a motion for prosecution with the court against lawmakers Yoon Gun-young, Ko Min-jung, Song Young-gil, Hwang Hee, Lee Sang-jik, Minister of SMEs and Startups Park Young-sun, and former Busan Mayor Oh Keo-don.

Regarding the indicted current lawmakers, Joo said, "Among the 24 indicted, the Democratic Party, which has nearly twice the number of seats, has only 7 members indicted, while our party, which has half the seats, has as many as 11 indicted." He added, "In the past, the prosecution at least tried to maintain mechanical balance, but this time they made an unacceptable decision without even that."

He continued, "We have repeatedly seen the prosecution defend and distort corruption in other cases, but even in election-related cases, this seems too extreme." He expressed hope that the court would properly address the issue through the motion for prosecution but also voiced concern, saying, "The court has often made pro-government decisions in important rulings so far, which is worrisome."

Joo expressed dissatisfaction, saying, "This morning naturally brings to mind the phrase 'Oh-ho-tong-jae' (an expression of deep regret). Almost without exception, key figures in the ruling party were not prosecuted, making me think the prosecution has completely collapsed."

He also accused the Democratic Party of undermining the National Assembly audit. He said, "I met with Kim Tae-nyeon, floor leader of the Democratic Party, to urge the adoption of important witnesses and requested a resolution, but the response yesterday was only that no more witnesses related to Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae could be adopted." He raised his voice, saying, "Although the Democratic Party holds all the standing committee chair positions, they are creating a shielded audit by neither properly urging nor managing insincere responses or insincere requests for document submissions."

Joo also criticized the ruling party for effectively providing investigation guidelines in the Lime and Optimus private equity fund cases.

He said, "They say not to create sanctuaries and to actively investigate, but refuse to accept the establishment of a special prosecutor or special investigation team." He sharply questioned, "Why do the ruling party leadership, including Representative Lee Nak-yeon, Minister Choo Mi-ae, and Floor Leader Kim Tae-nyeon, daily preemptively label these as financial fraud cases and provide guidelines?"

Joo emphasized, "This case must no longer be downplayed. Given that even text messages saying 'everyone in the Blue House Civil Affairs Office is my person' have surfaced, if this is not a power-type gate, then what case is? The president should not just say there are no sanctuaries in investigations and to cooperate, but should order the formation of a special investigation team and call for a special prosecutor investigation. Only then can this case be cleanly resolved."

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