Jung Jin-seok: "Kim Kyung-soo's Guilt Raises Serious Questions About Moon Administration's Legitimacy"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Jeong Jin-seok, the most senior member of the People Power Party, commented on the guilty verdict for Kim Kyung-soo, Governor of Gyeongnam Province, regarding comment manipulation, stating that it "raises serious questions about the legitimacy of the Moon Jae-in administration."

On the 7th, Jeong said through Facebook, "Because it is an administration born through illegal public opinion manipulation," expressing this view.

He said, "The court stated that in a democratic society, politicians must never engage in comment manipulation, which was the reason for the guilty verdict."

Regarding Governor Kim’s guilty verdict for comment manipulation, the People Power Party collectively criticized the decision.

Floor leader Joo Ho-young also met with reporters after the Gyeonggi Province Budget Policy Council on the 6th and pointed out, "In a situation where the comment-related case involving a key figure close to the president during the presidential election has ended in a guilty verdict, there has been no statement from President Moon," adding, "Wasn't there an attack by President Moon and the Democratic Party of Korea regarding the National Intelligence Service comment incident?" Governor Kim served as a spokesperson for President Moon’s election campaign in 2017.

Spokesperson Bae Jun-young also stated in a commentary, "If they have even the slightest conscience, they should apologize to the public now and resign from the governorship," and criticized, "The Democratic Party should publicly apologize to the people as a responsible political party."

The People Power Party’s Portal Fairness Countermeasure Special Committee proposed the so-called 'Kim Kyung-soo Prevention Act' on the day of Governor Kim’s verdict. The committee, led by Chairman Ki Hyun Kim of the Portal Fairness Countermeasure Special Committee and involving about 30 People Power Party lawmakers, submitted a bill to amend the Information and Communications Network Act to ban the use of macro programs for online public opinion manipulation.

The committee stated, "As seen in Governor Kim’s trial so far, the damage caused by the use of macro programs by the 'Druking' group and Governor Kim to expose news articles favorable to specific party candidates and policies on portal main pages during the last presidential and local elections has been revealed," adding, "Stronger legal support must be provided to prevent specific political forces from destroying democratic public opinion formation and the foundation of democracy."

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