Democratic Party of Korea leader Kim Min-seok said Wednesday that the Supreme Court's issuance of an additional arrest warrant for Kim Keon Hee was "inevitable justice."
Speaking at a supreme council meeting at the National Assembly, Kim said the extension of her detention was "a matter of course in terms of public sentiment, common sense, legal interpretation and the gravity of the case."
He said Kim Keon Hee had "leveraged the power of her husband, former President Yoon Suk Yeol, to participate in stock price manipulation, intervene in highway route changes, accept bribes from the Unification Church, meddle in People Power Party candidate nominations and engage in the selling of public offices — the full compendium of state power abuse and corruption."
Kim added that the party would "make every effort to decisively root out the state power abuse, corruption and emergency martial law insurrection of Yoon Suk Yeol and Kim Keon Hee, and ensure that every crime is fully accounted for, so that such power-driven misconduct is never repeated."
Democratic Party floor leader Han Byung-do, addressing the party's plan to launch a parliamentary investigation into allegations surrounding Chief Justice Jo Hee-dae, said "it must be made clear before the public whether the judiciary upheld political neutrality and fulfilled its constitutional duties." He added that the party would "thoroughly scrutinize whether Chief Justice Jo met his constitutional obligations."
Han said allegations against Jo had been mounting — including a prolonged vacancy on the Supreme Court bench, the contents of a late-night senior staff meeting held on the day martial law was declared, and questions over the appropriateness of discretionary expense payments and cash bonuses. He added that because both the insurrection special prosecutor and the comprehensive special prosecutor had proceeded only through written inquiries, without conducting searches or in-person interviews with Jo, "there are limits to establishing the facts. Sufficient facts and evidence must be secured" through a parliamentary investigation.
Turning to the opposition, Han said the People Power Party was "claiming it will block the parliamentary investigation by invoking judicial oppression and violations of the separation of powers." He said that "ignoring allegations of political interference by the judiciary while obstructing the Assembly's legitimate oversight duty is itself what runs counter to the spirit of the separation of powers."
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