By Park Si-soo
President Park Geun-hye could be subject to a prosecution investigation because “all people are equal under the law,” Prime Minister nominee Kim Byong-joon said Thursday.
Kim made the comment while saying he will execute “100 percent of the Constitutional rights given to the Prime Minister” to normalize the government that is mired in an unprecedented political scandal.
Earlier in the day, Justice Minister Kim Hyun-woong told the National Assembly: “If deemed necessary to get to the bottom of the issue, we will ask the President to be investigated.” No sitting Korean president has been subject to an investigation by prosecutors.
The PM nominee said his moves would include the right to carry out a “reshuffle of Cabinet members and control economic, social and other state affairs.” Kim said a reshuffled Cabinet will comprise people representing the ruling Saenuri Party and opposition parties. He said “everything,” including a Cabinet reshuffle, will be decided through negotiations with the ruling and opposition parties.
These decisions, he said, were made after he had “sufficient talks” with President Park Geun-hye.
Kim said he would ask Park to relinquish her membership of the conservative ruling Saenuri Party if the issue stands in the way of normalizing the government.
Kim was a close aide to late former President Roh Moo-hyun, who was at odds with conservative politicians, including Park, while in office. So Kim’s nomination as Prime Minister is widely considered Park’s maneuver to placate mounting public anger and a gesture of accepting opposition parties' suggestions that the conservative President form a new Cabinet with her political foes.
In another sign for the opposition parties, Park Thursday appointed Han Kwang-ok, a close aide to another liberal former President Kim Dae-jung, as her chief of staff.
The PM nominee also made it clear he opposes Park’s ambitious plan of teaching students with state-published standardized history textbooks.
“I doubt state-published (history) textbooks would be a reasonable and sustainable (policy),” he said.
The nominee also said he opposes a Constitutional amendment driven by the President. “The amendment should be driven by people and the National Assembly,” he said.
Last month, Park proposed a constitutional revision that focused on changing the current five-year, single-term presidential system.