People Power Party lawmaker Kim Min-jeon [Yonhap]
People Power Party lawmaker Kim Min-jeon [Yonhap]

People Power Party lawmaker Kim Min-jeon shot back with "If you're jealous, go ahead" after a fellow lawmaker raised the issue of roughly 2 billion won ($1.49 million) in prison funds accumulated by former President Yoon Suk Yeol, during a National Assembly audit of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials.

At the national audit held Tuesday, PPP lawmaker Joo Jin-woo called on the CIO to investigate allegations surrounding President Lee Jae Myung's golf activities, prompting sharp pushback from Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers and a heated exchange on the floor.

Legislation and Judiciary Committee Chairwoman Seo Young-gyo then brought up the CIO's earlier arrest of Yoon, saying his aides had stood by while he "did wrong things in the presidential seat, and that is how things got to where they did." She added, "Does it make sense that Yoon Suk Yeol earned 2 billion won in prison in just one year?"

Kim responded with "If you're jealous, go ahead," drawing laughter from PPP lawmakers.

Kim later posted a clip of the exchange on her social media, writing: "'Does it make sense that Yoon Suk Yeol earned 2 billion won in prison in just one year?' — what Chairwoman Seo Young-gyo said at today's national audit."

"If you're jealous, go ahead," Kim wrote. "This is the CIO that went so far as to shop for warrants to arrest a former president, and indicted a sitting judge over allegations of 1 million won per person in entertainment." She added that the office had been "conspicuously quiet" before Special Prosecutor Min Joong-ki. "Same CIO, different standards," she said, criticizing the agency for "mocking the public's goodwill instead of fixing a crumbling judicial system."

Meanwhile, the total prison funds received by Yoon and his wife Kim Keon Hee came to 2.19 billion won, according to figures released by Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Sung-yoon. That is roughly eight times the annual presidential salary of about 270 million won.

Yoon received approximately 1.95 billion won in prison funds between his re-detention on July 10 last year and Sept. 9, while Kim Keon Hee received about 240 million won between her detention on Aug. 12 of the same year and Sept. 9.


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