Park Yong-jin "If the Kim Geon-hee Special Prosecutor is blocked by President Yoon and the ruling party, the situation will become uncontrollable"

"The prosecution investigation is wavering between being inconclusive and stagnant"

Park Yong-jin, Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] On the 6th, Park Yong-jin, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, commented on the prosecution's investigation into Kim Geon-hee, the spouse of President Yoon Seok-yeol, saying it is "at a level wavering between being inconclusive and stagnant." He warned that if a special prosecutor investigation is blocked due to opposition from the government and ruling party, the situation could become 'uncontrollable.'

In an interview with BBS Radio's 'Jeon Young-shin's Morning Journal' on the same day, Park said, "The prosecution's investigation itself is not really a movement to properly uncover the truth, but rather an attitude to bury it or prevent it from escalating, which is why many people have talked about the special prosecutor law." He added, "Although the special prosecutor law has not yet been proposed, there is concern that it will be impossible to uncover the truth and clarify the facts through the current prosecution investigation."

Regarding the People Power Party's claim that an investigation into Mrs. Kim was already conducted during the Moon Jae-in administration, he pointed out, "To be precise, the investigation was conducted under the influence of President Yoon, who was then the Prosecutor General." He criticized, "Even though very reasonable issues and new facts have emerged, the investigation related to stock manipulation charges is not being properly carried out."

In response to criticism that even if the special prosecutor law is promoted, it will not pass the hurdles of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee and the president's veto power, he warned that the situation could escalate further. Park said, "As the Democratic Party's floor leadership, there will be considerations on how to proceed with the legislative process in the National Assembly," but added, "Even if proper investigative legitimacy is confirmed and this is sufficiently communicated to the public during the legislative process, if the ruling party simply exercises procedural objections and the president uses veto power regarding matters related to himself or his family, it will inevitably lead to another scenario." He emphasized, "The important aspect is how well the Democratic Party informs the public about the necessity of the investigation and whether that is clearly revealed. If the public judges that this investigation is necessary but the chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee blocks it and stubbornly insists on it, and the president exercises veto power, I believe the situation will become uncontrollable."

Regarding the prosecution's summons request for Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party, on the same day, he said, "The party can only view the ongoing series of events with great anger and concern." He explained about the Democratic Party's accusation against President Yoon for false information disclosure, "Although it is practically impossible to punish false information disclosure during the president's election period, we proceeded with the accusation knowing this, partly to show a comparison regarding election law violations caused by such false information."

He continued, "It is not impossible for the investigation itself or the investigative agencies to investigate whether the false information we have specified is indeed false," and said, "We will see how they respond to this."

He also rebutted criticism from the ruling party regarding Lee Jae-myung's refusal to comply with the prosecution's summons. He said, "(At yesterday's confirmation hearing) Prosecutor General nominee Lee Won-seok expressed that the summons was to guarantee the opportunity to testify, and if that is correct, then this is a kind of right for Lee Jae-myung." He added, "If the facts have been sufficiently identified and it is possible to do so in writing, then appearing in person is, according to the nominee's words, Lee Jae-myung's right, and whether to exercise or not exercise that right is up to Lee Jae-myung. The People Power Party is not in a position to keep telling him to exercise or not exercise his rights."

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