野 "Is there really nothing else to do?"... Park Beom-gye "Why belittle it?"

Minister of Justice Park Beom-gye is smiling while responding to questions from lawmakers during the plenary session of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee held at the National Assembly on the 23rd. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee on the 23rd ended in disruption after a series of controversies, including personal insults, related to Minister of Justice Park Beom-gye's directive to investigate allegations of witness tampering by the investigation team in the case of former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook.

On the same day, Yoo Sang-beom, a member of the People Power Party, said at the full meeting of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, "If you judged that prosecution was necessary, you should have directed the prosecution," and criticized, "What is this cowardly meeting of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office chiefs? Where is the directive to have an advisory body make the judgment?"

Minister Park responded, "You should not recklessly say that I am cowardly," adding, "I reviewed the records over three days and made a decision to direct the investigation accordingly." He further stated, "If you had directly seen the records of this case, you would not have said such things."

Kim Do-eup, a member of the People Power Party, criticized, "Why is the Minister of Justice sitting and reviewing 6,000 pages of records? Don't you have other things to do? I am worried about the state of the country." Targeting the phrase "Honorable member," which Minister Park often uses, Kim said, "Do not respect me. I do not want to be respected," and added, "It seems you not only have a short judicial career but also lack investigation experience, so you do not understand well."

Minister Park said, "Why must I be the target of disparagement by the member? I am doing other things well," and asked, "What does the length of my judicial career have to do with anything?"

The remarks escalated into a loud dispute between Baek Hye-ryun of the Democratic Party, who said, "The comment about the judicial career is a personal insult," and Kim, who asked, "Did I say something wrong?" Yoon Ho-jung, the chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, declared a recess, saying, "The two members' dispute is not stopping, making it difficult to proceed with the meeting."

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