與 "Yangpyeong Expressway, Standing Committee and Verification Committee Should Proceed with 'Two-Track' Approach"

The National Assembly Ethics Advisory Committee Decides Not to File Charges Related to 'Coin'

The People Power Party has announced its intention to decide the route of the Seoul-Yangpyeong Expressway project, which has raised allegations of preferential treatment involving President Yoon Seok-yeol’s in-laws, through a 'two-track' approach involving the relevant standing committee and an expert verification committee.

On the 31st, Yoon Jae-ok, the floor leader of the People Power Party, met with reporters at the National Assembly after the Supreme Council meeting and said regarding the formation of a bipartisan verification committee for the Yangpyeong Expressway, "If a state audit is conducted, it is highly likely to become a political conflict, and there are limitations in objectively verifying the facts. It would be better to entrust experts to conduct the verification."

Earlier, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong mentioned during a Q&A session after the 'Emergency Safety Inspection Meeting for Public Housing' that "Since Justice Party lawmaker Sim Sang-jung has already proposed forming a bipartisan route verification committee, the People Power Party’s secretaries will lead the formation of an expert verification committee." Previously, Minister Won declared the cancellation of the expressway project in response to the opposition party’s allegations of preferential treatment involving the president’s in-laws.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Floor leader Yoon explained, "Basically, if the Democratic Party of Korea requests, we will open the standing committee at any time to respond to inquiries, and separately, experts will verify which route is the most appropriate. Proceeding with these two procedures in a two-track manner to resolve unnecessary controversies and prevent further delays in the expressway construction would be the best approach."

Regarding the Democratic Party, which insists on the 'priority of a state audit,' he criticized, "If they keep insisting on a state audit, it seems they are ignoring the public’s and Yangpyeong residents’ expectations for the expressway to be built quickly, and are instead politically attacking the government and using it as an election strategy ahead of the general election." He added, "If a state audit is to be conducted now, our party believes that objective facts proving legal violations must be revealed and various conditions for a state audit must be met."

Meanwhile, the People Power Party decided not to file a complaint against the National Assembly Ethics Special Committee’s Ethics Advisory Committee for leaking the list of lawmakers who voluntarily reported their virtual asset holdings and transactions.

Floor leader Yoon said, "First of all, many problems were exposed during the voluntary reporting process of virtual assets by the Ethics Advisory Committee. Therefore, we judged that these issues should naturally be pointed out," but added, "The chairperson of the Ethics Advisory Committee expressed regret and promised to prevent recurrence, so although there are many parts that some lawmakers consider quite unfair, overall, the party will not take separate legal action." He added, "However, we will not prevent individual lawmakers from taking legal action."

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