Park Jumin: "Lee Jae-myung unconscious... Prosecution to request warrant today or tomorrow"

"If the Arrest Consent Bill Comes, It Must Be Rejected"

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, was transferred to a hospital on the morning of the 18th, the 19th day of his hunger strike. Regarding whether the prosecution will request an arrest warrant for him, Democratic Party lawmaker Park Jumin predicted, "They will request the warrant today or tomorrow."

On the 18th, Park said on CBS's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show,' "The prosecution has said from the beginning that they will not consider the hunger strike situation, so it seems they will request the warrant today or tomorrow."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

If the prosecution requests the arrest warrant that day, the vote on the arrest consent bill could take place as early as the 21st. Park said, "If you ask for my personal opinion, I have been cautious about expressing it, but I think the warrant should definitely be rejected if the arrest consent bill comes up," adding, "within the party, as I mentioned in another interview before, opinions are divided."

Earlier, since the Democratic Party declared the waiver of parliamentary immunity, opinions among factions are divided over the vote on the arrest consent bill. Park said, "Discussions need to be held and organized as opinions are somewhat divided," and "(Even the option to reject it as a party stance) needs to be discussed."

Despite medical staff's recommendations the previous day, Lee expressed his intention to continue the hunger strike but was transferred to the hospital on the morning of the 18th due to health issues. Park said, "Yesterday, he expressed that he would endure longer and could not stop the hunger strike," adding, "This morning, when I was at least called into the representative's office, he appeared unconscious."

Regarding the Democratic Party's resolution to propose the dismissal of Prime Minister Han Deok-su and demand the resignation of the entire cabinet, and the ruling party's response calling it 'unexpected,' Park said, "Due to incidents like the Itaewon tragedy, Minister Lee Sang-min was deemed problematic, so we proposed his dismissal and even moved toward impeachment. This time, regarding the death of a Marine and the related cover-up allegations, we also called for Minister Lee Jong-seop's dismissal," adding, "So, we are saying to reform and change these things. But since it is difficult to verify everything individually, we told the Prime Minister, who is responsible for the entire administration, to take responsibility," defending that it was not an unexpected move.

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