Jo Eung-cheon: "Choo Mi-ae used even the president who appointed her as a minister as a scapegoat... This is not right"

Former Minister of Justice Chu Mi-ae claimed that former President Moon Jae-in pressured her to resign, and now former leader of the Democratic Party Lee Nak-yeon has also claimed that he pressured her to resign for the sake of winning the by-elections, drawing attention to the background of these allegations. Democratic Party lawmaker Cho Eung-cheon criticized, saying, "It is for political revival," but added, "This is not right."

On the 4th, on BBS's 'Jeon Young-shin's Morning Journal,' Rep. Cho said, "There are boundaries even in politics. No matter how ruthless politics is, this is not right. Using the president who appointed you as a minister as kindling to promote your own agenda, this is not proper conduct."

On the 26th, Cho Eung-cheon, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, attended the "Democratic Party Reflection and Innovation Continuous Forum" held at the National Assembly and presented on the topic "Reflection and Lessons from Five and a Half Years of Democratic Party's Governance." Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

Former Minister Chu caused a stir last month on OhmyTV by claiming that former President Moon pressured her to resign. The day before, on KBS's 'The Live,' she targeted former leader Lee, saying, "Lee should not have done that. He should not have said that I have to step down because of the by-elections."

Rep. Cho said, "When ministers were asked if they would run in the general election this time, the answer was, 'The appointing authority is the president. The president will decide. It depends on the president's will. I am not in a position to say anything.' Everyone says that. Political appointees are expected to resign whenever asked to do so; they are not like career civil servants with fixed terms."

He added that it was natural for former President Moon to decide on former Minister Chu's resignation. Rep. Cho said, "Resignation and appointment are entirely up to the appointing authority, the president. It is not a position where you can decide the timing just because you want to start or quit immediately. Therefore, whether or not a resignation letter was submitted is not an important issue. But to bring up the president while arguing over whether one submitted a resignation letter or not is against political ethics."

There is also considerable analysis that former Minister Chu's revelations mentioning former President Moon are aimed at running in the general election. Rep. Cho said, "If I were to name the two biggest contributors who made President Yoon Seok-youl, I would undoubtedly pick former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk and former Minister Chu Mi-ae. Former Minister Chu continuously showed an image of being persecuted, such as the suspension of Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl's duties, which significantly increased Yoon's political weight and was almost decisive in his becoming president."

Regarding the Democratic Party Innovation Committee's proposal as its first reform measure to have all Democratic Party lawmakers give up their immunity from arrest and adopt a party resolution to approve arrest consent bills, which has been stalled in discussion, Rep. Cho criticized, "The fact that this innovation committee proposed and decided on this as the first reform agenda was actually a problem from the start. Did this cause the Democratic Party to be so criticized by the public? There were bigger problems, but they were ignored, and focusing on such a minor issue led to this situation."

Rep. Cho emphasized that rather than proposing reform measures, an evaluation of the current leadership's one year in office and the presidential election defeat is necessary. He said, "Why was the innovation committee created? Because the current leadership did not do well. Then, how was the current leadership's one year? There should be an evaluation of that. We lost the presidential election for the first time in five years and suffered a crushing defeat in the local elections, but there is no analysis or evaluation of the causes of that defeat. We need to analyze the reasons for the defeat."

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