Yang Yi-won-young: "'Being progressive does not necessarily mean being moral' is not an accurate expression"

"Is Coin Investment Immoral?"
"Public Opinion Trials Conducted Like Witch Hunts"

Yang Yi-won-young, a Democratic Party lawmaker who was reported to have said, "Do progressives necessarily have to be moral?" while defending Rep. Kim Nam-guk, who left the Democratic Party amid suspicions of multi-billion won cryptocurrency trading, clarified, "I did not use that exact expression."

On the 19th, Yang Yi-won-young said on SBS's "Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show," "I even protested to the reporter about that phrase. I did not use that exact expression. It seems it was taken harshly during the explanation process."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

He explained, "The core point is that while emphasizing moral superiority is important, what is more important is demonstrating superiority in governance ability?how well we can ensure the safety and livelihood of the people, how we can create hope and alternatives for the future."

Yang Yi-won-young added, "The background of this statement was during a party meeting where someone said, 'The Democratic Party was chosen because it has moral superiority over the People Power Party, so we must maintain that moral superiority.' I responded that maintaining morality is a given, but it is not correct to say, 'Because we are morally superior, please vote for us.'"

When asked by the host whether he sees a moral problem with Rep. Kim's cryptocurrency speculation issue, he said, "The standard of morality varies depending on perspective and the times. More than six million people invest in cryptocurrency. Many young people, disappointed by their inability to grow assets, try to increase their profits through cryptocurrency investment. Should we say that cryptocurrency investment itself is immoral?"

He emphasized that cryptocurrency investment itself is not the problem. Yang Yi-won-young said, "If the cryptocurrency investments were made during committee sessions, and there were thousands of such cases, I think that is inappropriate. We have an obligation to perform our legislative duties diligently. In that regard, there should be issues raised."

However, he pointed out, "When the cryptocurrency investment issue first came up regarding Rep. Kim, suddenly the figure of 6 billion won was mentioned, and there were allegations of insider trading and bribery. These unconfirmed facts led to a witch hunt-like public trial. The party also allowed his departure without properly investigating the allegations."

Yang Yi-won-young said, "If we pretend to be too clean, we might appear as a political group that criticizes the public by those standards, so we need to be more cautious. While Rep. Kim may have personal faults, it could also be a shared responsibility of our party and fellow lawmakers. There are also issues with legislative deficiencies."

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