Lee Jae-myung: "Yoon Seok-yeol's failure to search Shincheonji is dereliction of duty... Truth must be uncovered through a special investigation"

Lee Jae-myung, Democratic Party Presidential Candidate
Yoon Seok-yeol Says "No Search of Shincheonji"
"Special Prosecutor Must Uncover Truth" Criticism

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] On the 12th, Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, criticized Yoon Seok-yeol, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party, for not conducting a search and seizure to secure the list of Shincheonji followers, which had emerged as the epicenter of the COVID-19 spread during Yoon’s tenure as Prosecutor General, calling it "dereliction of duty" and a "crime," and said, "It is necessary to clarify the truth and punish through a special prosecutor."

Lee made these remarks during a Q&A session after announcing pledges for the Chungnam and North Chungcheong regions at the Independence Hall in Cheonan, Chungnam. Lee said, "Especially, the fact that shamanism and cults influenced the highest national leader, and particularly that prosecutorial power and political interests were exchanged through a cult group, is absolutely unacceptable." He added, "It is difficult to trust the neutrality of the prosecution now, and it will be even harder after the presidential election, so I believe that in any case, the truth must be clarified and punishment must be carried out through a special prosecutor."

Regarding candidate Yoon, Lee said, "He avoided and refused the search and seizure of Shincheonji for unreasonable reasons," and added, "Since Shincheonji received favors from candidate Yoon, there was an organizational directive to help with party membership registration, and it seems generally true that there was an influence on the party membership registration, estimated at an unknown number of 1.2 million members, and on the primary election results." This was interpreted as implying that Shincheonji followers systematically supported Yoon in the People Power Party’s internal primary election for selecting the presidential candidate.

Regarding former USFK Commander Vincent Brooks’ statement in an overseas media interview that additional THAAD deployment in South Korea is unnecessary, in response to a question about the differing interpretations between candidates Lee and Yoon, Lee said, "I think candidate Yoon often deliberately distorts objective facts." He said, "Especially regarding former Commander Brooks’ remarks, it is truly sad to argue over what a foreign high-ranking official said. (Candidate Yoon) repeatedly denies clear facts and lies, which is incomprehensible."

Lee said, "Everyone knows that THAAD cannot defend the metropolitan area," and questioned, "North Korea’s short-range low-altitude missiles are much faster and easier to attack with. Would they launch missiles at a high angle to the metropolitan area, spending a lot of money to increase interception chances?" He added, "It is a confirmed fact, but I wonder if (candidate Yoon) is distorting others’ words or stubbornly insisting on the opposite."

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