Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
Ruling party floor leader slams opposition for abusing dominance at Assembly
Ruling People Power Party floor leader Joo Ho-young delivers a speech at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap
By Nam Hyun-woo
By Nam Hyun-woo
Ruling People Power Party (PPP) floor leader Joo Ho-young said Tuesday that parliamentary democracy has been crumbling since the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) gained a majority of National Assembly seats.
Joo also accused the DPK of having double standards, which is a major contributor to the increasing public distrust in the Assembly, adding that DPK Chairman Lee Jae-myung is damaging the reputation of the Assembly due to corruption allegations made against him.
“The DPK is disabling most of the key consensus functions of the Assembly as soon as it secured a majority of seats,” Joo said in a speech at the Assembly as the head of a negotiation group or a party with 20 or more members.
“The DPK's attempts to disable the Assembly's coordinating committee by having its members abandon their party membership in disguise and exerting influence on independent lawmakers will remain as a dark chapter in history,” Joo said.
Joo was referring to independent Rep. Min Hyung-bae's exit from the DPK in April last year, when the rival parties were clashing over the main opposition party's attempt to pass a revision to a law that would strip prosecutors of their investigative powers.
When it comes to contentious bills, the National Assembly establishes a coordinating committee comprised of three lawmakers from the ruling party and three from the opposition bloc, including one independent lawmaker, before tabling the proposal.
After leaving the party, Rep. Min joined the coordinating committee and helped the passage of the controversial bill by the committee on April 26. However, he attended DPK events in May and openly expressed his intention to return to the party in June, triggering criticism over the party's practice.
“Democracy can be maintained with self-control and tolerance,” Joo said. “Far from those values, the DPK is damaging the rule of law with its distortions and far-fetched views.”
Joo also accused the DPK of shaming the Assembly with its double standards, saying that the past five years of the previous Moon Jae-in administration were characterized by “naeronambul.” The term roughly translates to “If I do it, it is romance but if you do it, it is adultery” and is used to accuse someone of hypocrisy.
“The Moon administration rose to power under the slogan of democracy and fairness, but has been far from those values,” Joo said.
The floor leader also accused the DPK of hypocrisy in its efforts to protect its chairman from prosecutors' investigations.
“When Lee was the mayor of Seongnam, he said he will create a country where a president will go to jail if he or she commits crimes,” Joo said. “And yet, the same individual is now labeling the fair investigations by the prosecution into multiple allegations against him as political persecution.”
On Feb. 10, the DPK chairman was grilled by prosecutors as a suspect in the Seongnam land development scandal, in which he is alleged to have been involved in a little-known private asset management company reaping astronomical investment profits from the development project in Seongnam's Daejang-dong area when he was mayor of the city located to the south of Seoul.
It was Lee's third appearance before the prosecution since becoming the head of the main opposition party. He was summoned by prosecutors for the same allegation on Jan. 28 and questioned on Jan. 10 over allegations that he was involved in a separate bribery case. The prosecution is anticipated to issue an arrest warrant against Lee within this week.
Main opposition Democratic Party of Korea floor leader Park Hong-keun, center, shakes hands with ruling People Power Party (PPP) counterpart Joo Ho-young, bottom, after the latter's speech at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, Tuesday. Above is PPP interim leader Chung Jin-suk. Yonhap
During his speech, Joo emphasized the importance of President Yoon Suk Yeol's initiatives on labor, pension and education reforms and called for national unity to overcome various challenges. However, he did not respond to or refute the DPK's call for a special counsel probe into first lady Kim Keon Hee over her alleged involvement in a stock manipulation case.
A day earlier, DPK floor leader Park Hong-keun said in his Assembly speech that the party would accomplish the special counsel probe into the Deutsch Motors stock price manipulation case, saying, “The trinity of the presidential office, the prosecution and the judiciary are striving to protect Kim.”
The opposition bloc has been accusing the first lady of bankrolling or playing an indirect role in the stock manipulation attempts for about three years since December 2009.
Last week, the Seoul Central District Court convicted Kwon Oh-soo, the former head of Deutsch Motors, of manipulating the company's stock price and sentenced him to two years in prison, suspended for three years. But the court did not state in its ruling whether Kim had committed illegal acts.
On Tuesday, the presidential office released a statement refuting the DPK's call for a special counsel probe.
The statement said, “(The DPK) is making a false interpretation, citing the 48 references to Kim's name in the ruling.” The references, according to the office, categorized Kim as “a group of people enticed to transact,” meaning that Kwon had enticed others to purchase the company's shares. The statement added, “It is impossible to say someone is involved in a stock price manipulation attempt just because they were induced to buy the company's stock.”