Democratic Party: "Yoon's remarks on investigating the previous administration's deep-rooted evils are an open declaration of political retaliation"

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] The Democratic Party of Korea on the 9th criticized Yoon Seok-yeol, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party, for his remarks that he would investigate the corruption of the previous administration if he came to power, saying he "openly declared political revenge."

In an interview with a media outlet, Yoon responded "I will" when asked whether he would investigate the corruption of the previous administration. Regarding "Prosecutor A," who appears to refer to Prosecutor General Han Dong-hoon, known as a close aide, he evaluated him as having "suffered damage from the regime and acted almost like an independence activist."

On the day the interview was reported, the Democratic Party held an emergency meeting chaired by Woo Sang-ho, the head of the party's general election campaign headquarters, and issued a statement of criticism.

In the emergency statement, Head Woo strongly condemned Yoon Seok-yeol's declaration of political revenge, pointing out it as "a reckless remark revealing the arrogance of a prosecutor who has enjoyed privileges all his life."

He urged Yoon to retract his political revenge remarks and apologize, emphasizing that "the campaign headquarters recognizes the current situation as an emergency national crisis and will act decisively."

Subsequently, individual Democratic Party lawmakers raised the level of criticism through social media, and the campaign headquarters issued further statements.

Spokesperson Cho Seung-rae said in a statement, "Yoon openly declared political revenge even before coming to power," criticizing, "Is the Moon Jae-in administration pre-judged as corrupt and will be investigated until everything is uncovered? This is typical of the omnipotent prosecutor's power."

Chief Spokesperson Ko Yong-jin held a briefing and criticized, "Why compare it to independence activists when there is no appropriate analogy? We hope he immediately withdraws this insult to all those who shed blood and sweat for the independence movement. Is he already taking care of his close aides?"

Lawmaker Hwang Un-ha also claimed on Facebook, "It can be interpreted as a political revenge warning that once he becomes president, he will appoint his closest aides to the highest prosecutorial positions and privatize prosecutorial power to properly deal with people from the previous administration."

Former lawmaker Choi Min-hee stated on social media that Yoon's description of a rally demanding prosecutorial reform as "completely lawless" in a video interview released the previous day by the Regime Change Action Committee "sounds like a threat to 'arrest them all' when peaceful assemblies are called lawless."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

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