By Jun Ji-hye
The leading opposition Democratic Party (DP) took to the streets Wednesday to stage a rally against allegations that the prosecution and the spy agency fabricated Chinese government travel documents to create evidence against a North Korean defector currently standing trial on charges of espionage.
“The forging of foreign documents can never happen in a ‘normal country.’ Conducting a parliamentary investigation and appointing a special prosecution will be the only solution to clarify the suspicions,” said Rep. Kim Han-gil, DP chairman.
Speaking in Gwanghwamun Square, Kim claimed that the investigators and the National Intelligence Service (NIS) fabricated evidence to punish an innocent person by the National Security Law.
Prosecutors and the NIS are suspected of forging travel records for Yoo Woo-sung, after the Chinese Embassy to Korea said last week that Chinese governments documents the prosecution submitted to a Seoul appellate court were fabricated.
Yoo, who defected from the North in 2004 and was subsequently employed by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, was accused of having handed over personal information of some 200 North Korean defectors to Pyongyang. A lower court cleared him from these charges in August last year.
Along with the alleged document fabrication, the DP continued to demand that the ruling Saenuri Party agree on appointing a special prosecution to investigate the NIS’s suspected meddling in the 2012 presidential election.
Chairman Kim also urged President Park Geun-hye to express her position about the governing camp’s opposition to scrap the practice of parties nominating candidates to stand for municipal elections. Abolishing the party nomination system was a key campaign pledge of then ruling party candidate President Park in the lead-up to the 2012 poll.
Hours before taking to the street, the DP held an open forum at the National Assembly in which opposition lawmakers and invited experts said that only President Park was happy about the past year in politics.
The forum was held to assess the first year of the Park government ahead of the anniversary of her inauguration on Feb. 25.
“In contrast with Park, the public have had a difficult time over the past year. Nobody would give a positive assessment to the government,” said Kim.
The chairman cited a series of major cases and incidents recently hitting the nation ― avian influenza (AI) crisis, the leak of personal information by three credit card companies and a massive oil spill in waters off Yeosu ― as causes of the public anxiety.
Rep. Jun Byung-hun, DP’s floor leader, said: “President Park has shown no will to communicate with the people and the opposition parties and this resulted in the unstable society.
Jun added that the government violated nation’s democratic process, ruined the people’s living standards and habitually broke its promises with the public.
Rep. Chang Byoung-wan, chairman of the party’s policy committee, argued that Park, who apologized about the past misdeeds of her father, late authoritarian leader Park Chung-hee, gave a nod to controversial history textbooks that justify dictators and pro-Japanese collaborators during the colonial period.
“The government’s move to privatize the public entities and medical sector will also cause problems for people,” said Chang.
The governing camp slammed the opposition party, saying that the DP habitually takes to the streets whenever controversial incidents happen.
“The DP should stop such behavior. It should stop siding with a suspected North Korean spy as well,” said Rep. Choi Kyung-hwan, Saenuri Party floor leader.