Joo Ho-young: "North Korea's traditional letter contains false statements... Applied oil to the body and burned it"

Joo Ho-young, floor leader of the People Power Party, is attending a virtual party meeting at the National Assembly on the 29th and performing the national ceremony. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporters Lee Ji-eun and Lim Chun-han] Joo Ho-young, floor leader of the People Power Party, criticized, "The traditional letter sent by North Korea contains falsehoods that do not align with the facts," and added, "The government's and the Democratic Party's attitude of trying to end the incident with that is wrong."

After holding a virtual party meeting at the National Assembly on the morning of the 29th, Floor Leader Joo told reporters, "The conclusion reached by the People Power Party's fact-finding task force (TF), which visited the Ministry of National Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is that (North Korea) directly mutilated the body," and said, "According to this, the traditional letter sent by North Korea contains falsehoods that do not align with the facts and lacks sincerity. Moreover, the government and the Democratic Party's attitude of believing it and trying to end the incident with it is wrong."

When asked by reporters whether they had been informed by the Ministry of National Defense about whether the body was coated with oil and burned, he said, "It is a report from our military authorities, and I heard that there was an expression saying 'coated with kerosene,'" adding, "Kerosene is a burning oil, so it is a general term that includes gasoline and various oils we use. We translated it because the special intelligence (SI) we obtained contained the expression 'to apply'."

Regarding the dismissal without indictment of allegations involving Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae's son, he said, "The issue related to Minister Choo's son handled by the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office is full of unacceptable negligence, and I consider it closer to concealment, collusion, and complicity rather than investigation," and added, "We plan to refute the reasons for the non-indictment decision point by point as soon as we obtain them, and we are gathering opinions to push for a special prosecution in the National Assembly."