Lee Jong-bae: "The ruling party's Yoon Seok-yeol witch hunt... Whom is the audit for?"
[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Joo Ho-young, floor leader of the People Power Party, on the 23rd directed remarks at Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae, saying, “She has already made enough contributions to the regime, such as blocking the investigation into the Ulsan mayoral election manipulation case, dismissing all those who investigated the Ministry of Environment blacklist, and handling the collusion between the media and prosecution incident,” adding, “It would be better if she knew when to be satisfied and stepped down.”
At the National Assembly’s audit countermeasure meeting held that day, Floor Leader Joo said, “I would like to advise Minister Choo once again with the phrase from Korean movies, ‘Goma haera mai haetta aniga’ (meaning ‘Stop it, you’ve done enough’).”
Joo pointed out, “Several new facts came out through yesterday’s Supreme Prosecutors’ Office audit. There was controversy over whether the Prosecutor General is subordinate to the Minister of Justice, but if, as Minister Choo claims, he is a subordinate, then the minister has suffered the humiliation of being confronted by two subordinates,” adding, “If this were an ordinary person, out of shame, it would be Minister Choo, not Park Soon-cheol, head of the Southern District Prosecutors’ Office, who should resign.”
Joo also said, “It was revealed by the audit results that Minister Choo repeatedly abused power over the Prosecutor General with authority not even stipulated by law,” and criticized, “While our party’s lawmakers led the Judiciary Committee audit very gracefully based on facts, the Democratic Party lawmakers showed the public many examples of double talk, duplicity, and sophistry.”
Lee Jong-bae, chairman of the Policy Committee, said, “The behavior of the ruling party lawmakers toward the Prosecutor General in yesterday’s Judiciary Committee was unbearable to watch,” adding, “Seeing them attack the Prosecutor General, whom they had praised so much, at the level of a witch hunt made me wonder who this audit is really for.”
Chairman Lee said, “Democratic Party lawmakers attacked by saying it was selective justice or that if their judgment differed from the president’s, it should be handled politically, but it is hard to understand at a common-sense level what they are trying to hide by brutally attacking the Prosecutor General.”
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