Park Hong-geun "Presidential Office Overall Planning, Audit Office Subcontracted to Audit Moon... Constitutional Violation"

Yeo "Presidential Office-Audit Board Collusion 'Daegam Gate'... Yoon Must Apologize"
"Directed Audit Violates Constitution and Audit Board Act... Audit Board Chief and Secretary-General to Be Reported Next Week"

Park Hong-geun, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, attends the National Assembly inspection countermeasure meeting held at the National Assembly on the 6th. He is delivering opening remarks. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] On the 7th, the Democratic Party of Korea launched a full-scale offensive, claiming that the so-called 'Yoo Byung-ho text message' incident revealed collusion between the Presidential Office and the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI).

Park Hong-geun, the floor leader, said at the Supreme Council meeting that day, "The whole country is in turmoil over the 'power collusion' text messages between Yoo Byung-ho, the powerful Secretary General of the BAI, and Lee Gwan-seop, the Chief Secretary of State Planning at the Presidential Office," adding, "It can only be seen as a 'Daegam Gate,' where the Presidential Office planned overall and the BAI subcontracted to carry out audits on former President Moon Jae-in and others."

Park said, "Political audits and audits carried out under orders clearly violate the Constitution and the BAI Act, and there is also a possibility of leaking official secrets and abuse of authority," and added, "The Democratic Party will file a complaint with the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) against the BAI Chairman and Secretary General next week."

He also said, "Clear evidence of national disgrace and constitutional violation has been revealed, yet President Yoon Seok-yeol claims he has no time to intervene in the BAI audit," and "Previously, President Yoon said he would not interfere in the People Power Party's internal affairs, but secretly sent a 'cherry thumbs-up' text message to the floor leader."

He continued, "If the resignation of the BAI Chairman and the dismissal of the Secretary General do not take place, we will consider holding hearings and national investigations under the National Assembly Act to hold them accountable for the national disgrace," urging, "President Yoon must stop the political oppression rampage and apologize to the people."

Go Min-jung, a Supreme Council member, pointed out, "The discovery of 'secret text messages' between the top figures of the BAI and the Presidential Office revealed the reality of political audits," adding, "The reason the BAI was established as an independent institution was also to audit the current administration, but it has forgotten its original mission."

Regarding the BAI's attempt to conduct a written investigation of former President Moon Jae-in, she claimed, "It appears to violate the BAI Act itself, as it did not go through the Audit Committee's resolution and requested a written investigation despite no concerns about evidence destruction or flight risk."