Kang Hoon-sik: "Linking Lee Jae-myung and Ha Young-je is 'unfair criticism'"

Kang Hoon-sik, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea and head of 'The Better Future,' the largest group within the party, referred to the criticism comparing Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party leader, to the approval of the arrest consent motion for Ha Young-je of the People Power Party as "억까 (unfair criticism)."

On the 31st, Kang said on KBS's 'Choi Kyung-young's Strong Current Affairs,' "From the outside, it looks like the arrest consent motions were handled the same way, but why was Lee Jae-myung's motion rejected while Ha Young-je's was approved? In fact, if you look at the content, they are completely different," he explained.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The day before, Ha's arrest consent motion was approved with 160 votes in favor, 99 against, and 22 abstentions out of 281 members present. Considering that the People Power Party had effectively made supporting Ha's motion their party line, at least 40 members of the Democratic Party also voted in favor.

The ruling party is criticizing this by comparing it to the rejection of Lee's arrest consent motion. Yoo Sang-beom, the senior spokesperson for the People Power Party, said, "The arrest consent motion will come back to the National Assembly, so will Lee Jae-myung again enjoy parliamentary immunity?"

However, Kang said, "Lee's investigation has been like an Indian rainmaking ritual, continuing like this, so every lawmaker actually feels this is somewhat oppressive," adding, "So I think grouping different cases as the same issue is 억까 (unfair criticism)."

Kang also interpreted the approval of Ha's arrest consent motion as a sign of solidifying the 'Pro-Yoon (친윤)' regime. He said, "Ha was the chief secretary to Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo. So within that party, it could be a signal that if you are not Pro-Yoon, something will happen," and added, "I don't know the situation of my fellow lawmakers, but seeing them line up in unison to give up parliamentary immunity, I thought, 'Wow, the Pro-Yoon regime has definitely been established.'"