Lee Won-wook: "Han Dong-hoon seems to be asking for rejection"

Amid the National Assembly's rejection of the arrest consent motions for lawmakers Yoon Kwan-seok and Lee Sung-man, who left the Democratic Party of Korea over the 2021 party convention money envelope scandal, Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon stated during his explanation of the arrest consent that "20 people who received money envelopes are participating in the vote." In response, Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Won-wook evaluated, "It was almost as if he was asking for the motions to be rejected."

On the 13th, Lee said on BBS's 'Jeon Young-shin's Morning Journal,' "When Minister Han submitted the reasons for the arrest consent motion yesterday, he made a provocative remark, 'There are 20 lawmakers who received money envelopes here. They will be the casting vote. Is it fair for those people to vote?' Such remarks seemed to provoke a lot of thoughts among the lawmakers present," he said.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The day before, the National Assembly held a vote 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.

In response to the host's question, "In the end, wasn't it the casting vote?" Lee replied, "Even if 20 people actually received money envelopes, it doesn't mean only those 20 cast the rejection votes." We have 167 members. So that leaves 147 people. Shouldn't those people have cast approval votes then?"

He argued, "If there are lawmakers who actually received money, then shouldn't the rest have cast approval votes? If the approval votes from the People Power Party and the Justice Party total 120, and 140 approval votes come from Democratic Party lawmakers, that would mean over 200 people cast approval votes," adding, "So those people were not the casting vote; rather, many lawmakers cast rejection votes."

Regarding the 'bulletproof frame,' Lee said, "I believe the public criticism cannot be avoided. That is an issue the Democratic Party must bear," and added, "Even though the lawmakers were fully aware of this, the fact that so many cast rejection votes despite this awareness seems to reflect a defensive reaction against the prosecution's excessive and unfair investigation."

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