Jeong Jeom-sik: Kim Min-seok 'illegally occupied space meant for emergency patients'
Lim: Kospi down over 30%, 182 trillion won in national pension funds wiped out
The People Power Party on Tuesday sharply criticized Democratic Party of Korea leader Kim Min-seok over a controversy surrounding his use of a hospital emergency parking lot, saying he had "caused trouble for critically ill emergency patients while paying condolences to a firefighter who died in the line of duty protecting the lives of the people."
PPP Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sik made the remarks at a national audit strategy meeting held at the National Assembly. "While visiting the funeral home of the late Fire Lieutenant Kim Jin-seok, the chief of staff's vehicle carrying Rep. Kim occupied the hospital's emergency-only parking lot for 30 minutes," Jeong said. "It was an unauthorized occupation of a space meant for emergency patients."
Jeong also labeled as "blatant gapjil" Kim's early-morning visit to a fire station and his interruption of a local festival performance to deliver remarks.
"Kim Min-seok is stirring up gapjil controversies day after day," Jeong said. "He visited the Seoul Gangseo Fire Station at 5 in the morning — waking firefighters who should have been sleeping and resting at that hour and gathering them together just to take a photo."
Jeong added that Kim had "barged onto the stage mid-performance at a festival in Sunchang-gun, cutting off the invited singer, and proceeded to ramble into the microphone about how it was 'the hometown of Minister Jeong Dong-young' and 'the constituency of Rep. Park Hee-seung.'" He asked, "Is a local festival a Democratic Party convention or a campaign rally?"
Jeong also pressed the ruling party on broader governance failures. "The government and ruling party have already been piling up misrule and failures across real estate, stocks, national defense, public safety and more," he said. "Public anger is already burning — and the ruling party leader's parade of gapjil is pouring fuel on the fire."
He also took aim at Democratic Party lawmaker Bu Seung-chan for comments made at a national audit session Monday in which Bu defended Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae's so-called "fiscal straw" remarks. "Rep. Bu made the outrageous claim that fire department budgets were 'sucking up fiscal resources,'" Jeong said. "The Democratic Party must impose its highest level of party discipline on Governor Choo and Rep. Bu to ensure such outrageous remarks are never repeated."
Jeong also called for a special prosecutor investigation, citing remarks made by Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Chan-jin at a Financial Services Committee national audit session Monday. "FSS Governor Lee Chan-jin acknowledged that the review of single-stock leveraged ETFs was rushed to meet a listing schedule," Jeong said. "We need a special prosecutor investigation into why the listing date was set in advance and the review was squeezed in to fit it."
PPP policy committee chairwoman Lim I-ja pointed to the recent stock market slump. "Since the election, the Kospi has fallen more than 30 percent through Monday, and 182 trillion won ($136 billion) in national pension fund value has evaporated in just three months," she said. "Individual investors alone have absorbed confirmed losses of more than 2.3 trillion won from single-stock leveraged ETFs as of Aug. 14."
"Yet President Lee Jae Myung is dodging responsibility by saying 'someone must have decided,' and the minutes of the National Pension Fund management meetings are to be kept secret for another four years," she added. "We must never allow those responsible for losses of trillions of won — and for wiping out 182 trillion won — to remain as some nameless 'someone.'"
raining@heraldcorp.com
