Jeong Jeom-sik calls Kim 'worst nominee in history of confirmation hearings'

Im Yi-ja says forced appointment would signal collapse of Lee administration

People Power Party Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sik speaks at a floor strategy meeting at the National Assembly on Friday. [Yonhap]
People Power Party Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sik speaks at a floor strategy meeting at the National Assembly on Friday. [Yonhap]

The People Power Party warned President Lee Jae Myung on Friday that "an angry public will come crashing down on the president" if he pushes ahead with the appointment of Kim Seung-won as justice minister.

PPP Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sik, speaking at a floor strategy meeting at the National Assembly, said the Democratic Party of Korea had unilaterally adopted a confirmation hearing report on Kim on Thursday. "Not a single allegation — solicitation of favors, the family cooperative and the rest — has been resolved," he said.

He said a majority of the public opposes the appointment, yet the Democratic Party is "bulldozing ahead regardless," calling it "by far the worst confirmation hearing in history."

Jeong said the president had only one reason for nominating a candidate with such fatal flaws: Kim's background as a leader of a group that sought to withdraw criminal charges. "A candidate without qualifications is trying to become justice minister — the person who would make the president's trial disappear — after sailing through a hearing with no real scrutiny," he said.

Jeong also took aim at a social media post in which President Lee vowed to track down ticket scalpers. "While trampling the rule of law purely for his own political survival, the president is flexing cheap muscle on social media, promising to chase down ticket scalpers to the end," he said. "The very person trying to bury his trial in secret is out there worrying about scalped tickets."

He urged the president to abandon both the Kim appointment and the push to withdraw the charges against him if he wanted to avoid a lame-duck presidency.

PPP Policy Committee Chair Im Yi-ja drew a parallel with the Moon Jae-in administration's appointment of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk. "This is an exact replay of the Moon administration's catastrophic misjudgment when it forced through Cho Kuk's appointment," she said. "What happened? Cho resigned just 35 days after taking office, and that arrogant forced appointment was the decisive opening act of the Moon administration's downfall."

She added that countless citizens are now warning that forcing through Kim Seung-won's appointment will likewise serve as the starting gun for the collapse of the Lee administration.

Im also said the president's press conference, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Friday, should open with an apology to the public. "The first words out of his mouth must not be more excuses," she said. "It is only right that he begin with a public apology and a confession of remorse — withdrawing the nomination of Kim Seung-won and pledging a complete reversal of his autocratic governing approach."

PPP Secretary-General Jeong Hee-yong said the president must bear responsibility for any decision to force the appointment through. "All eyes are on what answer the president will give to the public's concerns and what decision he will make on the ministerial appointment," he said. "Public sentiment is already clear — in most polls, opposition to appointing Kim as minister runs more than twice as high as support."

"If the president forces the appointment through regardless, he alone must bear the consequences," he added.


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