The Democratic Party of Korea and other opposition parties held a plenary session of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly on the 16th and additionally adopted Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok and Chief of Staff to the President Chung Jin-seok as witnesses for the hearing on the “President Yoon Seok-yeol’s impeachment petition” scheduled for the 26th. Following the previous adoption of Ms. Kim Kun-hee and President Yoon’s mother-in-law Choi Eun-soon as witnesses, they plan to summon Prosecutor General Lee and others to question them on the controversy over the botched investigation into Ms. Kim’s acceptance of luxury bags and suspicions of stock price manipulation. The People Power Party protested, saying, “We are astonished at the Democratic Party’s shamelessness in adopting the Prosecutor General, who is in charge of the overall investigation of Democratic Party leadership candidate Lee Jae-myung, as a witness for the hearing.”
As soon as the plenary session of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee began that day, the ruling and opposition parties engaged in a battle over the legality of holding the impeachment petition hearing scheduled for the 19th and 26th. People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Sang-beom, who was appointed as the ruling party’s floor leader of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee that day, said, “The Legislation and Judiciary Committee can only review the impeachment motion if a majority of the National Assembly members propose it and the plenary session resolves to refer it to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee.” Fellow party lawmaker Joo Jin-woo asked, “If they unconditionally review national petitions on the grounds that the matter is serious, would they also review a petition to expel party leader candidate Lee Jae-myung from the National Assembly in connection with the ‘suspicion of corporate card misuse’?”
In response, Democratic Party member and Chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee Jeong Cheong-rae argued, “Since the impeachment petition was automatically referred to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, it is being reviewed in accordance with the National Assembly Act,” and “If you want to investigate, go to the National Assembly Secretariat that referred it and investigate it.” When the ruling party pointed out, “In the past, the impeachment petition against then-President Moon Jae-in was posted not only on the Blue House bulletin board but also on the National Assembly website, but was not addressed,” Legislation and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jeong repeatedly countered, “That was a violation of the National Assembly Act by then-Chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee Yeo Sang-gyu, who was a member of the People Power Party. Examine it with him.”
When the chairman of the Legislative and Judiciary Committee, Jeong, pushed for a vote on the adoption of six additional witnesses, including Prosecutor General Lee, Chief of Staff Jeong, Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs Hong Chul-ho, and Presidential Archives Director Lee Dong-hyeok, the ruling party Legislative and Judiciary Committee members protested and walked out of the meeting room. The vote was passed as is, and the number of witnesses for the hearings on the 19th and 26th increased from 39 to 45. The opposition parties, including the Democratic Party, had previously pushed through bills to address suspicions of external pressure on the investigation into the death of Private Chae and suspicions about Mrs. Kim’s luxury bag, respectively, at the impeachment petition hearings on the 19th and 26th.
Reporter Ahn Gyu-young kyu0@donga.com
Reporter Kwon Gu-yong 9dragon@donga.com
Source: www.donga.com
