Jang Dong-hyeok: 'The minister's time is over — now comes the time for investigation'
Jeong Jeom-sik: 'Stock manipulation allegations must be probed regardless of resignation'
Park Sung-hoon: 'Resignation is not a get-out-of-jail-free card — overhaul the personnel line'
Han Dong-hoon: 'The people won in the end — I will walk with them'
The People Power Party went on the offensive Saturday over the resignation of Kim Seung-won as nominee for justice minister, calling it a forced ouster and saying it had come far too late.
PPP leader Jang Dong-hyeok said on Facebook that Kim had "ultimately resigned," but argued the withdrawal was anything but voluntary. "In name it was a resignation — in reality, he was pushed out," Jang wrote.
Jang said President Lee Jae Myung had likely intended to use a press conference to shift the political dynamic and push through Kim's appointment. "The Democratic Party even rammed through the adoption of the confirmation hearing report on Friday," he wrote. "The president said he had 'not yet made a final decision,' testing public sentiment."
Jang added that the press conference had backfired badly, saying the situation had only deteriorated further and that the president had been left with no choice but to cut Kim loose. He also took aim at Kim's characterization of the allegations against him as a politically targeted investigation. "Even as he stepped down, all he did was blame others and blame prosecutors," Jang wrote. "The minister's time is over. Now comes the time for investigation."
PPP floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik also posted on Facebook, saying it was "long overdue" for Kim — whom he described as the point man for dropping the charges against President Lee — to finally step aside.
Jeong argued that the allegations of Kim's involvement in stock price manipulation must continue to be investigated by the relevant authorities regardless of whether he withdrew his nomination. He also linked Kim's resignation to the question of dropping the charges in President Lee's ongoing trial, saying that replacing the point man for that effort "means nothing as long as President Lee Jae Myung does not abandon his top governing priority of having the charges dropped."
Jeong then urged the president directly to "take this opportunity to give up once and for all on having the charges dropped and the trial erased," and to "declare that you will stand trial."
Jeong also raised questions about the personnel vetting system in the wake of a string of failed ministerial nominations. He called on the administration to "reflect on the flaws in the vetting process exposed by the failures of the nominees for minister of gender equality and family and minister of justice, and to carry out a full overhaul of the personnel line."
PPP chief spokesperson Park Sung-hoon also issued a statement, saying "resignation is not a pardon" and calling for a reinvestigation into the allegations surrounding Kim.
Park said the matter was "far too serious to be quietly swept aside just by giving up a ministerial post," and warned Kim not to "even dream of obtaining a pardon through a tail-cutting resignation that carries no accountability or punishment." Park also pushed back on Kim's statement at his resignation press conference that he would "not give up on the truth," accusing him of distorting the substance of the matter "once again with excuses and sophistry, harping on about an unfinished prosecution reform and a politically targeted investigation."
Park also raised the question of Cheong Wa Dae's responsibility for the vetting failures. He said the back-to-back nomination collapses should prompt a reckoning over the state of the vetting process, and called on the administration to "conduct a full review of why the personnel vetting system has collapsed to this degree."
Park further demanded "immediate disciplinary action, removal from posts, and decisive personnel reforms" against those in the Cheong Wa Dae vetting line responsible for "causing a disastrous personnel failure and throwing state affairs into disarray."
Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon wrote on Facebook that the Democratic Party of Lee Jae Myung had "defended the 'oppa poison lobby' appointment with all its might, calling it a better pick the more you looked at it — but the people won." He added, "I will look only to the people and move forward together with everyone."
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