Sangmin Lee "I Cannot Fully Accept Song Younggil's Press Conference"

Lee Sang-min, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, expressed on the previous day that he "cannot easily accept" former Democratic Party leader Song Young-gil's statement at a press conference denying knowledge of the money envelope allegations.

On the 24th, Lee said on CBS's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' regarding the press conference, "He said 'I don't know about it,' but this is not something one can claim ignorance about."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

He added, "The audio recordings were revealed through reports, and when listening to the quite specific parts, it is more reasonable and rational to strongly suspect that former leader Song was involved or directly distributed the money envelopes," and said, "Most of the public would probably think so, and then he should have either provided a detailed explanation or raised a rebuttal."

Lee also said, "He announced that he would return to the country after the press conference, but it was very late to clarify his position," adding, "When this incident broke out, he should have quickly returned and confessed what he knew or stated his position truthfully. Instead, it seemed like he was avoiding coming back altogether, which was quite inappropriate." He was pointing out Song's distancing remark when the initial request for early return was made, saying, "What would he say if he went in?"

The Democratic Party has, for the time being, breathed a sigh of relief following Song's declaration of withdrawal from the party and his return to Korea. However, Lee said, "This is not a situation to breathe a sigh of relief." He stated, "The truth of this money envelope incident?who gave how much money to whom and how the money was collected?none of this has been revealed," and "once these facts are uncovered, strict accountability must be demanded. Truth and responsibility are key, but nothing has changed, and they say he withdrew from the party, but if that is considered a reason to breathe a sigh of relief, isn't that just scapegoating?"

Lee holds the position that an internal investigation should be conducted either through the party's ethics inspection unit or an external third-party organization. He said, "The prosecution will continue its investigation regardless of our intentions, but separately, the organization should conduct its own internal cleansing investigation," and added, "It must be done, and giving up on that in advance is giving up on the leadership of the party's leadership."

Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party leader, had previously stated that the party would not conduct an internal investigation. Lee Sang-min said, "Then what is the party leader or leadership for?" and "A few days ago, Leader Lee said at a press conference that because there is no compulsory investigative authority and it is ineffective, they will not conduct an internal investigation. I find that very hard to understand."

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