Kim Byung-min "Many Criticisms of the Democratic Party for Politicizing Disasters"

Impeachment Proposal Dismissed: "Assessment That It Was Unreasonable From the Start"
"Primary Responsibility Lies with Basic Local Government Heads in Disasters"

Kim Byung-min, Supreme Council Member of the People Power Party, criticized the Democratic Party of Korea for pushing forward the impeachment motion against Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min on the 26th, calling it "a very bad decision that caused an administrative vacuum in the Yoon Suk-yeol government."

Kim appeared on KBS Radio's 'Choi Kyung-young's Strongest Current Affairs' that day and said, "There were many opinions from the beginning that the impeachment was excessive," adding, "For a minister's impeachment, there should be serious violations of the Constitution and laws, but putting aside the minister's remarks and the controversies at the time, it was unclear what laws or constitutional provisions were actually violated."

He continued, "Nevertheless, the Democratic Party, based on its 169 seats in the National Assembly, forcefully pushed the impeachment," and pointed out, "Since the October 29 disaster, there have been many criticisms of the Democratic Party's behavior of exploiting disasters for political purposes."

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

He then emphasized, "Of course, there are various moral responsibilities that politicians and cabinet members must have," and said, "As the head of the ministry responsible for disaster management, Minister Lee must have had a heavy sense of responsibility at the time, and if there are issues with the (disaster) manual or legal matters that need to be corrected, there is a duty to make efforts to ensure that the same disaster never happens again in the Republic of Korea."

Regarding the Democratic Party's criticism that "no one is taking responsibility for the social disaster," he explained, "According to the Disaster and Safety Act, when a disaster occurs, the greatest responsibility lies with the heads of basic local governments who oversee safety in the area, and they have many obligations."

Kim argued, "The mayor of Yongsan District was even detained and indicted, and is now facing trial, and the then chief of Yongsan Police Station was similarly detained and indicted," adding, "It is not appropriate to approach this as if no one is taking responsibility."

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