Hong Jun-pyo: "Democratic Party deceived the people with false agitation to win... They won't be fooled three times"

"People Have Already Been Deceived Twice"
"No Way to Make a Criminal President"

Hong Joon-pyo, the mayor of Daegu, claimed that the Democratic Party of Korea "deceived the people with lies and agitation to win the presidential and local elections."

On the 18th, Mayor Hong opened his statement on his social media account by saying, "The Democratic Party has already started to tarnish me." He acknowledged, "During the Moon Jae-in administration, I was a pitcher who lost in the presidential and local elections, so I was called a 'losing relief pitcher.' That is true." However, he added, "During the Park Geun-hye impeachment presidential election, the goal was not to win but to rebuild the party, so it was not a loss but rather a winning pitch. The local election was a disguised peace election with even Trump involved, so there was no way to win. Weren't both the presidential and local elections ones where the people were deceived by lies and agitation?" Furthermore, he said, "This time will be different. The people have already been deceived twice, so they will not be deceived a third time," adding, "Surely the people will not make criminals and rioters the president."

Hong Joon-pyo, Mayor of Daegu Metropolitan City. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo

Earlier, on the 17th, Mayor Hong also argued regarding President Yoon Seok-youl's charges of rebellion, stating, "It is difficult for President Yoon to be charged with the crime of rebellion because he advocated for national normalization, which is a purpose crime." He explained, "The act requires a riot in nature, and a riot must be severe enough to disturb the peace of a region. In this case, the martial law was closer to a temporary local disturbance rather than a riot. According to our criminal law, if it exceeds a disturbance, it becomes a charge of disorderly conduct, and only when it exceeds disorderly conduct does it become a riot." He added, "Thinking of the LA riots where murder, arson, and robbery ran rampant helps understand the concept of a riot," and noted, "This aligns with the column by Professor Heo Young, a leading constitutional scholar. He already said six days ago that it is difficult to establish rebellion charges and it looks more like abuse of power." However, he said, "For a sitting president, abuse of power cannot be criminally prosecuted while in office but can be grounds for impeachment. Yet, investigative agencies are rushing like hyenas to argue over rebellion charges, which seems absurd," and added, "During Park Geun-hye's time, they framed it as clearing deep-rooted evils, but now they are falsely agitating with baseless rebellion charges. Let's get a grip."

Additionally, through another post, he stated, "None of us ever said we supported martial law," and clarified, "Although it was an inappropriate martial law, we only said not to impeach over it but to demand an orderly resignation, and that was the party line." He continued, "However, those who trampled on that party line and supported impeachment, collaborating with the Democratic Party, should not be excused for any excuse," emphasizing, "They are merely Democratic Party stooges and clearly subjects for punishment. Let's stop hesitating any longer."