Lee Jun-seok: "Now There Is No 'Yun Hae-kwan', Nomination Is Not Arbitrary but Systematized"

"Each Lawmaker Has No Difficulty Communicating with President Yoon"
Lee Jun-seok Criticizes Private Organization... Insulting to Choi Jae-hyung

Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party, is attending the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly on the 13th and delivering opening remarks. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Hyun-joo] On the 15th, Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party, stated, "At this moment, there is no need to distinguish who is a 'Yunhaekgwan (Yoon Seok-yeol core associate)' or not, as our president has no problem communicating individually with each member of the National Assembly," adding, "I believe that in the Yoon Seok-yeol administration, there will be no one enjoying special status like gatekeepers or special positions as in the past."

In a phone interview with KBS Radio that day, Lee said, "If communication with the president were monopolized by some, the term Yunhaekgwan would arise, but the president is remarkable in that even after moving to the Yongsan office, he did not change the phone number he used regularly."

He added, "Not only individual members of our party but also many people with whom the president originally had social exchanges have no issues communicating with him, and he is demonstrating a governance philosophy that does not confine himself to a secluded palace."

Regarding criticism that the Innovation Committee, led by Representative Choi Jae-hyung, is Lee’s private organization, Lee responded, "When forming the Innovation Committee, I asked each Supreme Council member to recommend one person," adding, "That was impossible from the start." He also rebutted, "Attaching the name 'Lee Jun-seok faction' to someone like Representative Choi Jae-hyung is quite insulting considering his career." Representative Choi is a former head of the Board of Audit and Inspection under the Moon Jae-in administration.

Lee explained, "To put it simply, nominations can be done systematically, or the opposite, arbitrarily," adding, "There is a method where nominations are done arbitrarily, leading to nomination purges later, and a method where cutoff criteria and such are systematized and codified. Therefore, the Innovation Committee’s conclusions after discussing nominations inevitably involve systematic approaches."

He continued, "If you oppose codifying uncertain regulations, then you are against it," pointing out, "What’s unreasonable is that usually, when systematization happens, incumbent members like it, and when it’s done arbitrarily, they don’t. That’s how it should be, but seeing these reactions, I wonder if they truly understand the situation."

When asked if there are problems with the current nomination system, he said there are "areas for improvement," adding, "Chairman Choi did not suddenly appear; Representative Choi Jae-hyung was the most recent nomination committee member," and "It was the first time a conservative party conducted nominations mainly through primaries, so many loopholes were exposed." He continued, "Although not revealed during the election period, there were various shortcomings related to nominations," emphasizing, "When someone like Chairman Choi tries to improve the system, it cannot be done in a biased way."

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