Jeong Cheong-rae to the People Power Party: “A Time Will Come to Choose Whether to Disband Voluntarily or Be Dissolved”
(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporters Gwak Min-seo and Park Jae-ha – The Democratic Party escalated its offensive against the People Power Party on the 3rd, taking the opportunity of a special investigation’s raid on the residence of former floor leader Choo Kyung-ho, who was involved during the martial law declaration incident.
During a supreme council meeting, Democratic Party leader Jeong Cheong-rae mentioned that former floor leader Choo is suspected of obstructing the vote to lift martial law, stating, “If the suspicions are confirmed to be true and he is convicted as a key instigator of insurrection, the People Power Party will become a coup party, and thus will have no way to avoid a ruling of dissolution for being an unconstitutional party.”
Jeong added, “Based on the precedent set by the dissolution of the Unified Progressive Party, the People Power Party should be dissolved ten, a hundred, a thousand, or even ten thousand times,” and remarked, “The time will come when the People Power Party must choose whether to self-disband or be dissolved by the people and the Constitutional Court.”
He further stated, “Unless the People Power Party severs ties with Yoon Seok-yeol, the primary suspect of treason, and fails to purge insurgent supporters within the party, it will bear the disgrace of being an insurrection party and disappear into history.”
Supreme council member Jeon Hyeon-hee commented, “The allegations concerning the People Power Party’s church-state collusion, revealed through Kim Geon-hee’s request to join the Unification Church group, is a serious crime that destroys constitutional order and party democracy.” She argued, “This proves that the actual force behind the People Power Party is ‘Geon-hee’s power’ and that it was an unconstitutional party from the start of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration.”
Chief spokesperson Park Soo-hyun warned reporters after the supreme council meeting, “We caution that continued defense of Yoon Seok-yeol without reflecting on insurrection and denial of the Constitutional Court’s ruling will make the party subject to unconstitutional dissolution.”
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party harshly criticized People Power Party’s Na Kyung-won, who, during the previous day’s protest against the ruling party’s judicial committee chair, instructed Democratic Party members not to proceed with an agenda for appointing committee members by telling a first-term lawmaker to “stay quiet.”
Leader Jeong remarked, “Are first-term lawmakers supposed to sit quietly when fifth-term lawmakers tell them to? There are more outstanding first-term lawmakers than old-fashioned and rotten fifth-term ones.”
Supreme council member Kim Byung-joo added, “First-term lawmakers are also representatives of the people, and Na Kyung-won’s statement is akin to gagging the public,” and expressed the intention to review filing a complaint against her to the National Assembly’s ethics committee.
First-term lawmaker Kim Sang-wook, targeting Na Kyung-won’s remarks during an MBC radio broadcast, stated, “I have serious doubts about whether this individual has a fundamental understanding of democracy.”
The Democratic Party also decided to review amending the National Assembly Testimony and Appraisal Act to allow immediate investigation and legal action on issues reported to investigative agencies by the National Assembly.
This action addresses criticisms that investigations and trials of lawmakers such as Na Kyung-won are excessively prolonged.