Moon slams opposition party for defending lawmaker accused of diplomatic leak
President Moon Jae-in, right, leads a cabinet council at presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul, Wednesday, with the Foreign Affairs Minister Kang Kyung-hwa, left, joining the meeting. Yonhap
President Moon Jae-in denounced the main opposition party in an unusually strong tone Wednesday for its stance on the leak of a recent phone conversation he had with U.S. President Donald Trump.
"It was a thing that should have not happened, with no room for excuses," he said at the start of a weekly Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul.
It was the president's first public remarks on the case that has added to a drawn-out partisan strife here.
A South Korean diplomat working at the country's embassy in Washington leaked details of the May 7 phone conversation between Moon and Trump to Rep. Khang Hyo-shang of the Liberty Korea Party (LKP).
Rep. Khang Hyo-shang of the Liberty Korea Party. Yonhap
The lawmaker used the information to criticize the Moon administration's diplomacy in a press conference, disclosing that Moon had asked Trump to visit South Korea on his way back home after a trip to Japan this week.
While the working-level diplomat is facing the foreign ministry's disciplinary measures and a criminal probe, the LKP has defended Khang for his behavior, claiming it was a disclosure based on whistleblowing for the national interest and the people's right to information. The LKP also said the information Khang obtained was not sensitive enough to damage national security.
Moon expressed "deep regret" over the party's stance.
"I request (the LKP) to care about basic and common sense, at least regarding issues on the operation of a state, if it was in charge of state affairs and it hopes to win public support and take charge of state affairs again," the president said. (Yonhap)