Presidential Office on Opposition's Impeachment Hint: "Democratic Party Cannot Escape from Rumors and Fallacies"

Presidential Office in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The Presidential Office criticized Park Chan-dae, the floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, for remarks on the 4th that were interpreted as suggesting the possibility of the president's impeachment, saying, "It seems the Democratic Party cannot escape from rumors or sophistry."

A Presidential Office official made this comment on the afternoon of the same day at the Yongsan Presidential Office while speaking to reporters about Park's first floor leader's representative speech in the 22nd National Assembly.

Earlier, Park Chan-dae said, "The people will not just stand by unjust power," and "If the public sentiment continues to be defied, President Yoon will also follow an unfortunate path." This led some in political circles to interpret that Park was hinting at the possibility of impeachment against President Yoon.

In particular, Park also pointed out that "an unconstitutional situation is occurring where the president appoints those who deny the constitution to public office," and "the president, who has the duty to uphold the constitution, does not even recognize the seriousness of the problem."

In response, a Presidential Office official said, "(Park Chan-dae) mentioned the constitution, and this part should be addressed."

He added, "They proposed unconstitutional and illegal bills to induce the president's veto power, summoned investigative prosecutors to the National Assembly to hold hearings to protect the party leader, threatened to impeach prosecutors, and even moved to impeach judges. It is hard to understand how the party's floor leader, whose members who received money envelopes hide behind parliamentary immunity, can talk about the law."

He also added, "That might be what he calls politics at the level of the citizens' eyes."