Kim Sung-tae: "I endured a hunger strike while homeless to get the special prosecutor for Druking... Lee is not even a weak person"

"168-Seat Party Leader's Hunger Strike? What Are They Trying to Gain?"
Kim Seong-tae Enforced Druking Special Prosecutor Through 2018 Hunger Strike

Kim Sung-tae, former Liberty Korea Party lawmaker and head of the People Power Party's Gangseo-eul district committee, commented on June 1 about Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, starting an indefinite hunger strike: "(The opposition leader) should vigorously lead the 168 seats and have the insight to resolve this political situation, but I don't understand why he chose such an extreme and desperate method of a hunger strike by risking his own body," he said. "What does he expect to gain from the hunger strike?"

Kim appeared on YTN radio's 'News King Park Ji-hoon' that day and said, "On one hand, I partly feel, 'How desperate must he be to choose a hunger strike?'" but added, "To the public and the media, a hunger strike is a last resort that only an absolutely weak party can choose."

He continued, "Lee Jae-myung is not a weak party, is he? I pondered overnight why a strong figure would choose such a desperate last resort as a hunger strike," adding, "The option of a hunger strike is almost like being prepared to die; you have to be completely broken to be hospitalized, and that takes considerable time. So what exactly does the Democratic Party hope to achieve through this? Is the current judicial risk something that can only be dealt with by this hunger strike?"

He went on, "A hunger strike is desperate. Choosing a hunger strike means sometimes giving up everything else," and criticized, "He has taken the Democratic Party, the main opposition party, hostage with his personal and legal issues. That's why there has been no cooperation or good relations between the ruling and opposition parties for the past year."

Former Liberty Korea Party lawmaker Kim Sung-tae. / Photo by Dongju Yoon doso7@

Kim was the figure who began a hunger strike in May 2018, demanding a special prosecution on the 'Druking' comment manipulation scandal during the 19th presidential election. At that time, as the floor leader of the Liberty Korea Party, he pushed through the Druking special prosecution after a 9-day hunger strike.

Reflecting on that experience, he said, "A hunger strike is a means of resistance chosen as a last resort, damaging one's own body and even risking death," adding, "At that time, we were at an absolute seat disadvantage, and our party's approval rating was extremely low, around 12-13%, 15%, after President Park Geun-hye's impeachment."

Kim said, "Strangely, if you consume a little at night while fasting, you can go a month or two without blinking an eye. So I chose to do a street hunger strike, but left-wing groups even installed closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras on me."

He added, "By creating the Druking special prosecution, the Moon Jae-in administration, which proudly called itself a candlelight democracy government and showed great confidence in national governance to the people, was revealed through this special prosecution to be a government involved in comment manipulation," and said, "Also, Kim Kyung-soo, former governor of Gyeongnam Province, often called the successor, was troubled by this, and our camp evaluates that this became the cornerstone and starting point for regime change."

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