'Who believes a lying president?'

'Must take responsibility for leveraged ETF introduction'

People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won. [Yonhap]
People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won. [Yonhap]

People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won criticized President Lee Jae Myung's press conference Friday, saying it lacked "the core of what the public most wanted to hear."

Writing on her Facebook page that day, Na said the briefing "needed just one line — a pledge to resume his suspended trials," adding that "everything else was just pleasant words, take them or leave them."

Na said Lee had previously reversed his campaign pledge to waive his immunity from arrest, and had once declared that even a president must go to prison for committing crimes, yet was now refusing to face the trials suspended after he took office.

"Who would believe a lying president who flips his words like turning over his palm?" she said, urging Lee to first withdraw his nomination of Kim Seung-won, the minister candidate who would drop the indictments against him.

Na also said Lee must be held accountable for the failure of the leveraged exchange-traded fund policy. "Even after the disaster of a hasty, premature rollout, he speaks with a detached irresponsibility," she said. "Doesn't this mean they introduced leveraged single-stock ETFs knowing full well the risks and the lack of preparation? The single-stock leveraged ETF disaster has been cited as wiping out 54 trillion won ($39.1 billion) in public wealth."

Na directly rebuffed Lee's claim that "not even a ghost knows whether share prices will rise or fall." She said that in March, Lee had declared "our stocks are undervalued" and approved the early introduction of the products, while former Policy Chief Kim Yong-beom said the market was "shedding its undervaluation." Single-stock leveraged ETFs were first listed and began trading on May 27, and in June Kim said South Korea would become "one of the top three markets by market cap within two to three years."

"They were in effect the very people who encouraged investment in single-stock leveraged ETFs," Na said. "In a market where not even a ghost knows which way prices will go, they poured gasoline on a fire when share prices were already blazing."

Na again urged Lee to resume his trials. "No need for many words," she said. "Before more criminal investigations and trials are added, President Lee Jae Myung should first face his five suspended trials. A president who refuses to stand trial cannot properly run state affairs or earn the trust of the people."


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