Jeong Jeom-sik: 'Investigators raided our membership rolls'

Yoon Sang-hyun: 'The law cannot apply differently to ruling and opposition parties'

People Power Party Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sik speaks at a press conference at the National Assembly on Wednesday, addressing pending issues including strains in the South Korea-US alliance and the confirmation hearing for Kim Ji-yong, the inaugural head of the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency. [Yonhap]
People Power Party Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sik speaks at a press conference at the National Assembly on Wednesday, addressing pending issues including strains in the South Korea-US alliance and the confirmation hearing for Kim Ji-yong, the inaugural head of the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency. [Yonhap]

The People Power Party on Wednesday urged a thorough investigation — including a search and seizure of membership records and a special prosecutor probe — after the Democratic Party of Korea confirmed through its own internal review signs that Shincheonji church members had joined the party en masse. The PPP argued that because its own membership rolls had already been subject to a search and seizure over similar Shincheonji infiltration allegations, the same investigative standard must apply to the Democratic Party.

PPP Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sik held a press conference at the National Assembly on Wednesday and said investigators had already raided his party's membership records over the Shincheonji mass enrollment issue. "I strongly urge that whether it is the newly launched Serious Crimes Investigation Agency or the police, the same standard be applied swiftly to investigate whether Shincheonji members joined the Democratic Party," he said.

PPP Spokesperson Jo Yong-sul also took aim at the Democratic Party in a statement, saying the party had long insisted the PPP was colluding with Shincheonji and had even raised the prospect of dissolving the party. "And yet it is within the Democratic Party itself that allegations of organized Shincheonji membership have now surfaced," Jo said.

Jo added that because Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok had personally raised the allegations and said the circumstances had been confirmed, the matter could no longer be brushed aside as an internal factional dispute. "Through a thorough investigation that includes a special prosecutor and a search and seizure, the circumstances and scale of Shincheonji members joining the party must be established, and any organized links between the Democratic Party and Shincheonji must be fully exposed," he said.

Calls within the PPP for the Democratic Party to disclose its findings and for investigators to apply consistent standards continued to mount.

Five-term lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun wrote on Facebook that the law could not apply differently to the ruling and opposition parties. "Let the Democratic Party answer with a transparent disclosure of its investigation results, and let investigators answer with a rigorous verification of the facts based on the same standards and principles," he wrote.

Yoon Yong-geun, a lawmaker serving as chief of staff to the floor leader, appeared on Channel A's YouTube program "Political Signal" and said the matter could no longer be concealed. "It would actually be better for the Democratic Party to allow police to search and seize its membership rolls itself, so the facts can be laid bare before the public through an official investigation," he said.


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