Yoo Seung-min: "President Yoon, once fixated on a word, repeats it endlessly"

Former Lawmaker Yoo Seung-min, MBC Radio Interview
"The term cartel is misused and overused anytime"
"It will go with pro-Yoon nominations, Lee Jun-seok's nomination is..."

Former lawmaker Yoo Seung-min pointed out in an interview with MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' on the morning of the 4th, "It seems that President (Yoon Seok-yeol) gets fixated on certain words and repeats them endlessly." This was a criticism regarding President Yoon's recent emphasis on dismantling interest cartels.

Yoo said, "Recently, the president has become obsessed with the word 'cartel' and seems to be misusing and overusing it indiscriminately."

Yoo diagnosed, "What disappointed me greatly during the Moon Jae-in administration was that from the early days of the administration, they said they would purge deep-rooted evils, mobilizing the police, prosecutors, and the National Tax Service, spending five years on purging deep-rooted evils. I felt very frustrated seeing that the country was not making significant progress and the president was not contributing to that. It seems that the Moon administration's deep-rooted evil purge and the Yoon administration's cartel purge are becoming similar."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Yoo said, "The president should leave the crackdown, investigation, and inquiry into corruption or illegal acts that violate the law to the police or prosecutors, or the National Tax Service. The president should have a bigger vision and strategy to lead the country forward. That is what true reform is."

Yoo pointed out, "Whether it is education, pensions, labor, or low birthrate, the real solutions for reform are very difficult. The president should gather wisdom, will, and focus on these truly difficult reforms. Using tax investigations and mobilizing prosecutors and police to beat and shake people down with a club is not the president's job."

Yoo said, "Do you know what the high school seniors are saying now because the academy instructors are being cracked down on? Those instructors have been charged with assault. Assault on feelings, the crime of hurting someone's feelings," adding, "Being charged with assault on feelings and subjected to tax investigations is not right. Will the authority of the state and the law be properly established this way? This is not normal law enforcement."

Kim Ki-hyun, leader of the People Power Party, is attending the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly on the 3rd. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

Yoo criticized, "In my view, the fundamental and difficult parts of reform are not being tackled because there is no confidence or preparation from the start. Instead, they are doing something very easy, beating people up, and insisting that this is reform."

Regarding the issue of Japan's Fukushima contaminated water discharge, Yoo said, "Recently, the Fijian minister said, 'If it is so safe, why not keep it in Japan?' The German environment minister also opposes ocean discharge," adding, "If it is so safe, why does Japan use it as agricultural or industrial water and not keep it within Japan but dump it into the sea? This is what makes the public uneasy."

Yoo expressed concern, "I believe our government should not become Japan's lackey or spokesperson. If we agree to this, the logic for banning imports of Fukushima seafood will completely disappear."

Meanwhile, regarding the 22nd general election on April 10 next year, Yoo said, "I think the pro-Yoon nomination will almost certainly include prosecutor nominations. I believe the ruling party will delay the nomination process and in the end, will likely follow the will of Yongsan for nominations."

However, Yoo left a lingering remark about former party leader Lee Jun-seok's nomination issue, saying, "His constituency is the difficult Nowon area in Seoul. There probably won't be anyone else to nominate there. I think there is a possibility that Lee Jun-seok will be nominated as well."

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