Ruling Party's National Assembly Inspection Committee "Lee Sang-min's Perjury Accusation Cannot Cover Lee's Judicial Risks" Backlash

"Learned Through Media Reports... No Consensus Among Secretaries
Even If the Disaster Is Politicized, Lee's Judicial Risk Cannot Be Covered"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] Members of the ruling party on the Special Committee for the National Investigation into the Itaewon Disaster have strongly opposed the opposition party's plan to file perjury charges against Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min and others.

Members of the People Power Party's special committee held a press conference before the plenary meeting scheduled for 4 p.m. on the 17th to adopt the national investigation report, stating, "The Democratic Party suddenly announced plans to file charges of perjury and other offenses against seven individuals who appeared at the hearing, including Minister Lee Sang-min and Han Oh-seop, Director of the Presidential Office's National Situation Room, without any proper discussion," and added, "They are repeating the irrational and political behavior of forcibly passing a motion to dismiss the Minister of the Interior and Safety."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Following this, the committee members stated in a press release, "They must face the reality that even by exploiting the national tragedy and politicizing it, they cannot cover up the judicial risks of Representative Lee Jae-myung, who has been summoned for a second time," and requested, "We ask that the perjury charges be immediately withdrawn and that cooperation be given for the adoption of an objective national investigation report based on factual evidence."

Lee Man-hee, the ruling party's secretary of the special committee, told reporters after the press release, "I plan to attend the 4 p.m. meeting and insist on adopting the report prepared by the committee's administrative office, which excludes political factors," adding, "There was no concrete discussion about the perjury charges even among the secretaries. I only learned about it through media reports."

Regarding the 'position statement' proposed by Special Committee Chairman Woo Sang-ho on the radio in the morning, Lee said, "We need to clarify our stance on the perjury charges first," and added, "There was much discussion about the statement, but including demands to the government is inappropriate, while including factual matters is something we should work on together."

Committee member Jo Su-jin said, "I learned about the perjury charges through media reports while holding a meeting at Lee Man-hee's office from 11 a.m. today," and pointed out, "This shows that the Democratic Party does not recognize the People Power Party as a dialogue partner at all." Jo added, "If there were perjury charges, why would the Democratic Party or pro-opposition civic groups not have reported them to the police until now? This can only be seen as a shallow tactic to avoid false accusation charges."

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