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| Rep. Park Ju-min of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) steps into the DPK leader's room to participate in a press conference to analyze the court ruling against South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyoung-soo at the National Assembly, Tuesday. Yonhap |
By Park Ji-won
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is going all-out for the sake of South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyoung-soo, a jailed confidant of President Moon Jae-in.
The party is organizing press conferences and forums to blame what it calls a court's "biased" decision to imprison him immediately after finding him guilty of opinion rigging charges. Critics, however, say there moves are publicity stunts to save Kim, who is considered a possible presidential contender.
"I was briefed Monday by a taskforce on Kim's case that said there were many faults in the court ruling," DPK Chairman Lee Hae-chan said during a party meeting Tuesday.
"It is fair for an incumbent governor to have his appeal heard without being taken into custody as he needs to serve as a public servant. In principle, he shouldn't have been put behind bars as he was not a flight risk and would not destroy evidence."
Kim was sentenced to two years in prison in January after a court found him guilty of online opinion-rigging ahead of the 2017 presidential election with a team of bloggers led by Kim Dong-won, better known by his online nickname Druking who was also found guilty and imprisoned.
The leadership of the DPK immediately criticized the ruling and sentence, saying the evidence against Kim was rigged and the party was sure of his innocence.
The DPK's special committee on judiciary power abuse held a press conference Tuesday with lawyers and criticized it. Cha Jeong-in, a law professor at Pusan National University said the ruling should consider whether there was a power imbalance between the action-taker Druking, and Kim, and questioned whether the governor was truly an accomplice.
"In reviewing the ruling, I decided there was not enough grounds to decide that Kim was an accomplice of Druking. The two were not in a boss―subordinate relationship."
Cha said the prosecution didn't provide enough objective evidence to support the claim of Kim being an accomplice, such as a third person's testimony or voice recordings, and claimed Kim was not a flight risk.
Kim Yong-min of the law firm Yangjae said the court adopted the logs of Naver as evidence of using a specific rigging program devised by Druking, but should have found more direct evidence relating the program to the crime.
The party also organized a meeting with citizens near Hapjeong-dong in Seoul to criticize the ruling, and released it through its Youtube channel.
Insiders say the ruling party's moves are to pressure the appeals court in favor of Kim who is expected to request bail this week.
Meanwhile, the opposition parties have criticized the DPK's defense of Kim, claiming it was attempting to unduly pressure the judiciary.
Citing the U.S. Watergate scandal, main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) floor leader Na Kyung-won said: "The entire government is taking action to save Kim."
Yoon Ki-chan, an LKP spokesman said, "The DPK should stop pressuring the court to save Kim."
"The DPK's unprecedented comments about the ruling risks the independence of the court from other powers and challenges democracy and the Constitution."
Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party also criticized the DPK and Lee saying: "The DPK and Lee should stop destroying judicial order and apologize to the people. They should silently wait for the upcoming appeal."
