Jo Eung-cheon: "Abolishing Yoon's Civil Affairs Office is like throwing out the baby with the bathwater"

"The Daejang-dong Special Prosecutor Must Include All Allegations Related to Lee Jae-myung and President-elect Yoon"

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] On the 15th, Cho Eung-cheon, Emergency Response Committee member of the Democratic Party of Korea, criticized President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol's plan to abolish the Office of the Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs, saying, "If you want to eliminate the functions of investigation and information gathering, you can just abolish the Anti-Corruption Secretary's Office," and added, "Why abolish the entire Senior Secretary's Office? This is like throwing out the baby with the bathwater."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

That morning, Cho appeared on MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' and said, "The Office of the Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs collects public sentiment," and questioned, "How will functions such as understanding public sentiment, verifying high-ranking officials in public service discipline, and legal advice to the president by the Legal Secretary's Office be handled?"

Regarding the Daejang-dong special prosecutor investigation involving both former presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung and President-elect Yoon, Cho said that all related suspicions should be included.

Cho stated, "The public still does not clearly know what the truth is," and added, "Covering it up just because the election is over is not good for either President-elect Yoon or our former candidate Lee." When asked by the host if this meant including the suspicions raised against candidate Lee in the investigation, he replied, "Everything should be included." He emphasized that all suspicions raised against President-elect Yoon should also be included.

When asked, "Even with a special prosecutor, is it realistically possible to investigate a sitting president after Yoon's inauguration?" he explained, "A special prosecutor can do it. They just cannot indict." He said, "Even if a direct investigation of the president himself is difficult, investigations up until just before that are possible," and added, "Everything except indictment can be done."

Regarding the controversy over President-elect Yoon's pledge to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, he said, "The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is not something trivial that can be simply cut in half; I think such a drastic approach is too extreme," and pointed out, "The Ministry certainly has its own unique functions. There are both positive and negative aspects, and these need to be considered calmly." He added, "Just because a one-line pledge received support, pushing it through without consideration is hasty."

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