Kim Byung-min "Democrats noisy with Kim Nam-guk, money envelopes, faction conflicts, but only talk about contaminated water"

Opposition Party Begins Hunger Strike: "Political Motive"
"Sea Pollution from Contaminated Water Discharge? Provide Evidence"

Kim Byung-min, Supreme Council Member of the People Power Party, claimed on the 27th that the Democratic Party of Korea's out-of-parliament public opinion campaign to stop the discharge of Fukushima contaminated water is "a political purpose to strongly rally their support base plus to drag all issues into the Fukushima contaminated water problem." He argued that the Democratic Party is conducting the contaminated water public opinion campaign for political purposes such as overcoming internal setbacks and rallying their support base.

In an interview with SBS Radio's 'Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show' on the same day, Supreme Council Member Kim said, "The Democratic Party is currently somewhat complicated. Although Kim Nam-guk, an independent lawmaker who left the Democratic Party, has been causing issues day after day, and there is commotion over the money envelope issue, and former leader Lee Nak-yeon’s return has stirred things up, they only talk about Fukushima contaminated water outside the parliament," adding, "Because of this, people in the fisheries industry suffer damage, and even though there are calls to approach this scientifically, they pay no heed."

He continued, "Is the Yoon Seok-yeol government siding with the Japanese government? What government in the world would try to harm its own people?" and emphasized, "Will the discharge of Fukushima contaminated water pollute the seas of the Republic of Korea? If so, clear and objective evidence must be presented."

Kim Byung-min, Supreme Council Member of the People Power Party. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

Regarding the opposition party’s commencement of a hunger strike to stop the discharge of Fukushima contaminated water, he criticized, "They should clarify whether this is truly for the people of the Republic of Korea or for their own political interests."

Opposition lawmakers are currently on a hunger strike to prevent the discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. Yoon Jae-gap of the Democratic Party of Korea began his hunger strike on the 20th, while Lee Jeong-mi, leader of the Justice Party, and Woo Won-shik, Democratic Party lawmaker, started indefinite hunger strikes on the 26th.

On the political burden of the opposition’s hunger strike, he said, "There are concerns about health issues and other aspects," and added, "I hope lawmakers reflect once on whether the people of the Republic of Korea want their lawmakers to engage in politics through hunger strikes."

Supreme Council Member Kim pointed out, "In the case of Lee Jeong-mi, leader of the Justice Party, she says to set a deadline for electoral system reform, but while she is on a hunger strike, she will not be able to accomplish anything as the leader of the Justice Party," and questioned, "Isn’t it the mission of the Justice Party leader to take various political actions such as electoral system reform that they must carry out?"

He added, "I absolutely cannot understand the Democratic Party’s out-of-parliament protests," and said, "Out-of-parliament protests or hunger strikes are things that a minority opposition party with insufficient seats and no power in the ruling party resorts to as a last measure."

Supreme Council Member Kim said, "The National Assembly is the place to actually solve problems, and the Democratic Party has 169 seats, a huge number of seats, and in fact, the people have given them absolute power," and stated, "The power given to them is not for hunger strikes."

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