2 DP firebrands resign from NIS probe panel

By Jun Ji-hye

Reps. Kim Hyun, left, and Jin Sun-mee of the main opposition Democratic Party pose for a photo after their press conference at the National Assembly, Wednesday, at which they announced their resignation from the parliament special committee on the National Intelligence Service’s intervention in the 2012 presidential election. / Yonhap

Two lawmakers of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) stepped down Wednesday from their positions as members of the National Assembly special committee currently investigating online meddling in the 2012 presidential election perpetrated by the spy agency.

The ruling Saenuri Party has consistently demanded that Reps. Kim Hyun and Jin Sun-mee be excluded from the committee.

“We decided to resign from the committee. We could not postpone the genuine investigation any more in accordance with the ruling party’s intentions,” said Kim and Jin at a press conference at the Assembly.

They stressed that they made their decision purely for the benefit of the nation.

“We just put down our titles as special committee members. But, we did not put down our responsibility to clarify the truth of the National Intelligence Service’s (NIS) illegal intervention in politics.”

The Saenuri Party filed a complaint last December against the two with the prosecution for violating the rights of an agent of the NIS by attempting to raid the agent’s residence and preventing her from leaving it for more than a day.

The agent was one of nine, according to the prosecution, who posted online comments to discredit opposition candidates during the presidential election including the DP’s Moon Jae-in and independent Ahn Cheol-soo.

The ruling party stated that the resignation of the two lawmakers was a necessary requirement for it to participate in the parliamentary investigation because they were directly involved in events under scrutiny. .

However, until Tuesday, the two DP lawmakers made it clear that they had no intention of acceding to the Saenuri Party’s demand, calling it a politically motivated stalling tactic to avoid a thorough probe.

While going head to head over Kim and Jin’s exclusion, rival parties already spent about a third of the 45-day investigation period that they agreed to earlier this month.

Senior members of the DP expressed their gratitude to the two lawmakers’ “difficult decision.”

“I want to thank them for their sacrifice and dedication. It is hard to control my anger at the ruling party that threw cold water on the investigation. The Saenuri Party just pounced on the two with ridiculous reasons,” said DP floor leader Jun Byung-hun.

DP Chairman Kim Han-gil said, “I could not ask them to step down because I know they played a huge role in revealing the NIS’s involvement with the presidential election,” adding that it is very regrettable that innocent people had to step down.

The ruling party welcomed Kim and Jin’s resignation.

“Their decision came so late, but better late than never. I hope the investigation committee can move forward from now on to establish truth of the NIS incident,” said Saenuri Party floor leader Rep. Choi Kyung-hwan.

Choi stressed that the Saenuri Party’s demand for the two to resign was not to drag down the probe.

“We asked the two to resign because they are defendants in the NIS-related case. This is a definite cause for exclusion.”

The DP announced that Reps. Kim Min-ki and Park Nam-choon as Kim and Jin’s replacement.