Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Park Ji-won [Yonhap]
Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Park Ji-won [Yonhap]

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Park Ji-won took direct aim at writer Yu Si-min on Wednesday, saying he is "playing a broken record."

Appearing on MBC Radio's "Kim Jong-bae's Siren Focus," Park said Yu's arguments now appear to be "getting no traction with the public."

Yu has repeatedly clashed with President Lee Jae Myung in recent broadcasts, labeling him a "guaranteed-loss candidate" and calling him the leader of what he terms the "New Lee Jae Myung faction."

On Tuesday, Yu appeared on the YouTube channel "2-Minute News" and said he had concluded that "the leader of the New Lee Jae Myung faction is likely the president himself, rather than lawmakers such as Lee Eon-ju," who is known as a close ally of Lee. He also said he believed "the president holds a position opposing the complete separation of investigation and indictment," adding that his "hypothesis is that the president wants to preserve prosecutors' investigative powers."

On Yu's criticism of prosecutors reform, Park said "no one in the public would say" that the Lee Jae Myung government's prosecutors reform had failed.

"Every administration in history has called for prosecutors reform, but not one has succeeded," Park said. "Under the Lee Jae Myung government, prosecutors reform has in effect abolished the Prosecution Service and stripped prosecutors of their investigative powers."

Park also said the National Assembly is "currently engaged in active deliberation on the question of supplementary investigative powers. But there is a problem with letting this drag on indefinitely, so I am calling for this issue to be resolved at least before the party convention," he added.

Park then said that while Yu, "as a progressive intellectual and writer, can say many things," the current period is "one of reckoning with insurrection and carrying out three major reforms." He argued that "it is a matter of principle that a progressive writer should refrain from making remarks that ultimately benefit the insurrection forces."


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