Colonel Park Jeonghun's Side: "Lee Jongseop's Resignation Seems Hastened to Conceal the Reality of External Pressure"

Attorney Kim Jeong-min MBC Radio Interview
"Security Gap? Created a Pretext for Resignation"

Regarding Defense Minister Lee Jong-seop's sudden resignation, former Marine Corps Investigation Unit Commander (Colonel) Park Jung-hoon’s side said, "It seems that this was hastily carried out to ultimately conceal the reality of external pressure."

Park Colonel’s legal representative, lawyer Kim Jung-min, appeared on MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' on the 13th and said, "Until now, they did not even admit what instructions you gave."

Lawyer Kim said, "Then, recently, since the arrest warrant request revealed what instructions he gave, the manager claimed it was someone else’s words and that he never said such things, making excuses like that," adding, "So, whether it was dismissal or resignation, since he said he would step down, his intention should be seen as not sincere."

Defense Minister Lee Jong-seop is attending the Cabinet meeting held on the 12th at the Yongsan Presidential Office building in Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

Regarding Minister Lee Jong-seop’s statement in a phone call with KBS the previous day that "If I do not resign first, (the government) will face an enormous burden," Kim pointed out, "Just as they found the excuse of junior officers for the order to suspend the transfer, they had to create a reason to step down."

Lawyer Kim criticized, "They are now using the logic that if impeachment occurs, the Defense Minister position will be vacant for a considerable period, causing security gaps, but isn’t that also somewhat dishonest? Of course, it can be an excuse, but there is no explanation as to why the impeachment happened, and only talking about this phenomenon is very irresponsible."

Lawyer Kim predicted that although Minister Lee is currently reported to the High-ranking Officials’ Crime Investigation Unit (PCC) on charges such as abuse of authority, it will not significantly hinder the related investigation.

Kim said, "It seems that the accused are not only the Defense Minister but several people," adding, "Of course, we reported the Legal Affairs Manager and the Prosecutor Unit Chief, but we understand that various civic groups have reported several related persons, so we expect that the PCC investigation will not face major obstacles."

Regarding the ruling party’s claim that the Marine Corps Investigation Unit does not have investigative authority and thus 'external pressure on investigation' cannot be established, Kim rebutted, calling it "nonsense." He said, "It is clearly stated as an investigation in the Presidential Decree, and pre-registration investigations are also considered internal investigations, so that is also a broad meaning of investigation," adding, "The investigations conducted by military police are ultimately based on investigation, so it should be broadly regarded as an investigation."

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