Democratic Party "Even the term 'Second Gyeongsul National Humiliation' Emerges"
Park Jin "Not Grounds for Impeachment... Restore Shuttle Diplomacy"
Ruling and Opposition Tensions Over Plenary Session Number
At the full meeting of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee held on the 21st, opposition committee members sharply criticized the outcomes of the summit between President Yoon Seok-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The opposition even called for impeachment of President Yoon and Foreign Minister Park Jin, demanding a hearing be held.
Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Sang-hee opened the questioning by saying, "What the president brought to Japan was not a solution but has become invalid," and added, "I don't know what kind of nerve he had to go. Is he really the president of the Republic of Korea?"
She continued, "He made 'empty promises' without the consent of the victims and the public," and criticized, "It is too shameful and unacceptable. The minister in charge caused this situation. The minister should resign."
Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Hong-gul also pointed out, "The lack of mention of Dokdo and comfort women was on the Korean side, but the Japanese side said there was," and added, "Regarding the claim for subrogation rights, the president is saying something different again." He then proposed, "If a state audit is difficult, I request the chairman to hold at least a hearing at the committee level."
Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Kyung-hyeop referred to it as a second state corruption scandal and mentioned impeachment of the president. In his questioning, Kim sarcastically said, "It is a second state corruption scandal passed from Choi Soon-sil to Cheonggong."
Kim stated, "It is an unjust infringement on the victims' pursuit of happiness and property rights as human beings, and it is a clear unconstitutional act that goes beyond the authority of the head of the executive branch by depriving even the victims' right to claim damages recognized by the Supreme Court," and criticized, "Abandoning the claim for subrogation rights is an act of breach of trust by the president who should protect the rights of the Korean people and national interests, abandoning the interests of the sovereign. It is clearly illegal and an abuse of power."
He added, "This corresponds to a clear cause for impeachment stipulated in Article 65 of the Constitution for the president and the minister," and explained, "Article 65 of the Constitution defines violation of the Constitution or laws in the execution of duties as grounds for impeachment."
Democratic Party lawmaker Cho Jung-sik also said, "There are even talks in the public that this is a second Gyeongsul national humiliation and Gye-myo national humiliation," and claimed, "In public opinion polls, President Yoon Seok-yeol's approval rating is falling while Prime Minister Kishida's has risen to 7%." Cho said, "Japanese media reported that Japan conveyed its position on the Dokdo issue and demanded faithful implementation of the comfort women agreement," and asked, "After the visit to Japan, the government has not provided any official explanation for a while. What exactly is the government's position?"
Minister Park responded, "There are parts of the Japanese media reports that are not true, and we have protested and expressed regret," and said, "You should trust what the government has said."
Minister Park also explained that the summit restored 'shuttle diplomacy' between Korea and Japan, adding, "If Korea-Japan relations improve, it is analyzed that the economic sector will increase by 3.5 trillion won."
Regarding the opposition's claim that it was 'humiliating diplomacy,' Minister Park replied, "We conducted the summit with Japan confidently," and said, "It was a magnanimous decision to prepare a proactive solution. We conducted independent diplomacy confidently as it is in Japan."
On the issue of impeachment, Minister Park said, "You mentioned impeachment, but in my view, this is a serious personal attack and defamation," and explained, "The government's policy decisions are not grounds for impeachment."
Meanwhile, there was a claim that the full meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee held on the 13th should be invalidated. Although the schedule was set by agreement between the ruling and opposition parties, the schedule coordination failed due to President Yoon's Japan trip.
At the time, Tae Young-ho, a member of the ruling People Power Party and the committee's secretary, said, "We proposed to hold the meeting after the president's visit was over, but that was unilaterally ignored. What I judged that day was that they decided to hold a unilateral meeting," and claimed, "It is fundamentally invalid." However, Lee Jae-jung, the opposition Democratic Party's secretary, rebutted, "If you had listened to the discussions and the victims' voices at the committee meeting where only the opposition was present, you would have realized how regrettable this diplomatic disaster and empty-handed diplomacy after the trip were," and said, "(The president's trip) is not a reason to avoid the committee."
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