Kim Han-gyu "Failure in Duties as Minister Han Dong-hoon... Choosing a Political Role"

Amid the National Assembly's rejection of the arrest consent motion for lawmakers Yoon Kwan-seok and Lee Sung-man, who left the Democratic Party of Korea over the 2021 party convention money envelope scandal, Kim Han-gyu, the Democratic Party floor spokesperson, evaluated Minister of Justice Han Dong-hoon’s explanation that "20 people who received money envelopes are participating in the vote" as a "failure in his duties as a minister."

On the 13th, Kim appeared on KBS's 'Choi Kyung-young's Strongest Current' and said, "The minister's duty is to persuade lawmakers to pass the arrest consent motion by presenting evidence of charges and the necessity of detention, but instead of fulfilling that role, he chose a political role of slandering the opposition party."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The day before, the National Assembly voted on the arrest consent motions for lawmakers Yoon and Lee in the plenary session. The motion for Yoon was rejected with 139 votes in favor and 145 against, and the motion for Lee was also rejected with 133 votes in favor and 155 against. Kim analyzed that the initially favorable atmosphere changed due to the prosecution's investigation.

He said, "When the arrest consent motion was first submitted to the National Assembly, there was clearly a favorable atmosphere, but recently, as the prosecution conducted extensive investigations including lawmakers' access records, CCTV footage, and even raided media outlets and lawmakers' offices for personnel hearing materials, the mood shifted to a need to control the prosecution's investigation or at least express such an intention."

In response to the host's question about whether lawmakers who were provoked by Minister Han's '20 money envelope recipients' remark changed their minds, Kim said, "I don't think many lawmakers suddenly changed their minds that day. It is clear that Minister Han made a planned political statement, but I don't think it caused us to intervene and change votes from approval to rejection overall."

Regarding Minister Han's comment that "the public will feel insulted by the Democratic Party's repeated shield," Kim said, "We are aware that the public views this matter negatively. That is why there was initially more of a mood to pass the motion. I believe the Ministry of Justice and Minister Han intentionally provoked the atmosphere that the Democratic Party must make some political statement even if it means enduring criticism of being a shield."

The 'shield controversy' seems to be delaying the launch of the Innovation Committee. Kim said, "There was controversy within the party yesterday about what the Innovation Committee should do, but since the public's negative perception seems to have increased, we now have to reconsider the timing and role of the Innovation Committee. After the rejection of the arrest consent motion, we planned to hold the Innovation Committee to show a changed stance on the money envelope incident, but we cannot help but worry about how the public will perceive the announcement of the Innovation Committee chairperson immediately."

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