PPP escalates offensive over golf controversy
Jeong calls on Cheong Wa Dae to give clear account
The People Power Party on Tuesday sharpened its attack over the "imperial golf" controversy surrounding first lady Kim Hye-kyung, calling on the Special Inspector to make the case his first assignment and leave no allegation unexamined.
Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sik opened a national audit strategy meeting at the National Assembly that morning, saying the controversy was "running hot." He said the crux of the matter was that the president's family — not the president himself — had privately used Taereung Country Club, a military facility.
Jeong said Cheong Wa Dae needed only to clarify whether the first lady had played golf or not. "Cheong Wa Dae has not disclosed a clear account of the facts on this point," he said.
He also criticized Democratic Party of Korea Legislation and Judiciary Committee Chair Seo Young-gyo for blocking fellow lawmaker Ju Jin-woo from playing a video clip during a committee session on Monday, calling it an abuse of authority.
"Committee Chair Seo blocked Rep. Ju from playing the golf video," Jeong said. "And the reason given is staggering — that it could not be shown because it was not footage from a media outlet."
He also accused Cheong Wa Dae of "suppressing the press" after it characterized media coverage of the allegations raised by Rep. Ju as the spread of false information.
"Cheong Wa Dae is trying to muzzle the press, and the Democratic Party is trying to muzzle the video," Jeong said, sarcastically accusing the presidential office and the ruling party of working in tandem to silence an opposition lawmaker.
He went on to say that the Democratic Party had "sunk to the level of the presidential office's second secretariat, which serves the first lady," adding that he could not help but pity Democratic Party lawmakers reduced to blocking National Assembly footage to protect the first lady's sensibilities.
Jeong noted that Special Inspector Choi Gil-su reported for his first day of work on Monday, saying Choi had pledged on his way in to maintain political neutrality and independence throughout his tenure.
"Now he must prove that resolve," Jeong said, calling on the Special Inspector to make the investigation into the first lady's golf allegations his inaugural task.
Meanwhile, at the same meeting, PPP policy committee chair Lim I-ja called on the government to ease the corporate tax burden and relax the 52-hour workweek regulation. Citing the Kospi's recent sharp decline, she said share prices could only recover if corporate competitiveness was restored.
"What the government should be doing now is not artificially propping up share prices, but taking the straightforward path of making this a better country for business," she said, calling strongly on the government to cut the corporate tax rate, ease the 52-hour workweek rule and sweep away outdated regulations blocking entry into new industries.
PPP Secretary General Jeong Hui-yong leveled sharp criticism at the government's real estate policies. Citing Ministry of Statistics data, he said the price gap between housing occupied by the top 20 percent of asset holders and the bottom 20 percent had widened to 290 times last year — the largest gap since records began in 2017.
Jeong likened the disparity to a "real estate class society," asking whether policymakers were offering nothing but rosy blueprints divorced from reality while jeonse listings dried up on the ground and ordinary people were being pushed to the outskirts of cities, unable to afford soaring housing costs.
He called on the government to abandon what he called empty promises of year-end stability and boasts of a price crash three years out, and instead correct the side effects of flawed policy by reviewing excessive owner-occupancy regulations and the tax burden that suppress demand, and by expanding housing supply.
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