People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won on Thursday criticized the Democratic Party of Korea's move to add grounds for case dismissal to a criminal procedure bill revision, calling it "a completely ugly deal that trades away supplementary investigative powers in exchange for case dismissals."
Speaking on SBS Radio's "Kim Tae-hyun's Politics Show," Na argued that the Democratic Party inserted the dismissal clause specifically to prevent the president from exercising a veto. "They abolished supplementary investigative powers entirely and built in a mechanism to make it impossible for the president to veto the bill," she said.
Na took particular issue with the dismissal grounds included in the revision, questioning who would determine what constitutes "a significant deviation from prosecutorial discretion" or "a serious illegal investigation." "Inserting such discretionary grounds is nothing less than ruling by law as a form of dictatorship," she said.
Na said she would also take part in the filibuster scheduled for the National Assembly plenary session that day. "Recent polling shows that support for maintaining supplementary investigative powers is far higher than opposition," she said, adding that growing public sentiment could give the president the political backing needed to exercise a veto.
She also criticized the government's plan to pursue separate supplementary legislation to protect crime victims after abolishing the investigative powers. "There is no reason to rush the abolition before addressing all the problems — saying 'let's discuss it later' and abolishing first is simply abnormal," she said.
On National Assembly Speaker Jo Jeong-sik's remarks that allowing presidential re-election is "the people's choice," Na said it was "the fate of a pro-Lee Assembly speaker," adding that unless the president explicitly rules out seeking a second term, the possibility must be seen as remaining open at any time.
"The Democratic Party is a party that will do anything to achieve its goals," she said. "When things get urgent, I believe they will do whatever it takes, even to break through the constitutional reform blocking line."
Turning to the recent sharp drop in the stock market, Na called on Kim Yong-beom, the presidential office's policy chief, to resign. "Blaming the public's investment tendencies is a remark that deserves a rebuke," she said, arguing that Kim bears responsibility for the process by which single-stock leveraged ETFs were introduced.
On real estate policy, Na criticized the Lee Jae Myung administration for applying a double standard. "The Lee government is pursuing a 'rules for thee, not for me' approach," she said, warning that real estate policy would deal a direct blow to Seoul and the greater metropolitan area.
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