'Search and Seizure' Gyeonggi Provincial Council: "The Hall of Public Will Has Been Violated"

The Democratic Party delegation of the Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly held an emergency press conference on the 23rd and issued a statement regarding the prosecution's excessive search and seizure of the Provincial Assembly and Gyeonggi Province. Photo by Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Following Gyeonggi Province, the Gyeonggi Provincial Council strongly opposed the prosecution's search and seizure, saying, "The hall of popular sovereignty has been violated."

The Democratic Party delegation of the Gyeonggi Provincial Council issued a statement on the 23rd, saying, "The Gyeonggi Provincial Council and Gyeonggi Province, the halls of popular sovereignty, have been violated by the prosecution," and criticized, "It is unprecedented that the prosecution conducted a search and seizure targeting the Secretariat of the Gyeonggi Provincial Council."

They added, "It is clear that there is a political motive behind the prosecution's insistence on searching the Gyeonggi Provincial Council, which is difficult to find any correlation with the Ssangbangwool North Korea remittance suspicion case," and emphasized, "The council is a policy deliberation body, not a project implementation agency, so it has no relation to the North Korea remittance case."

Furthermore, they lamented, "Even though criticism was rising over the prosecution's excessive search and seizure of the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Office, which began as political retaliation after the presidential election, the provincial administration was often paralyzed by the 13 rounds of superficial search and seizure aimed at tarnishing Party Leader Lee Jae-myung, and the morale of public officials plummeted."

They also directly criticized, "Above all, this search and seizure included the PC of Governor Kim Dong-yeon, who took office in July last year and is unrelated to the charges under investigation by the prosecution, as well as the Gyeonggi Provincial Council, which is not a project implementation agency."

In particular, they pointed out, "The current Yoon Seok-yeol government has no capacity to engage in excessive opposition party suppression and political retaliation," and noted, "Living costs such as heating bills are soaring sky-high, trade deficits are breaking records every month as the economic crisis approaches moment by moment, and international relations around us?including North Korea, the U.S., China, and Russia?are facing a more severe national crisis than ever before."

The delegation claimed, "The Yoon Seok-yeol government, which should overcome the current emergency situation through national unity and cooperation with the opposition party, is instead zealously suppressing the opposition by using the prosecution," and argued, "In South Korea today, indiscriminate and reckless search and seizure against not only opposition parties but also labor unions and civic groups have become commonplace."

Moreover, they expressed concern, "The prosecution has even wielded the sword of search and seizure against the Gyeonggi Provincial Council, the hall of popular sovereignty," and warned, "If search and seizure against each member of the legislative body is tolerated, local autonomy and democracy, built with the blood and sweat of the people, will be reduced to a mere shell."

Finally, the delegation urged, "The prosecution must immediately stop the politically motivated search and seizure of the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Office and the Gyeonggi Provincial Council ahead of the general election."