Second straight rally outside Cheong Wa Dae
'Lee Jae Myung–Kim Hyun-ji cartel has taken over government'
Party urges veto, boycotts Legislation and Judiciary Committee
The People Power Party is escalating its campaign against a special prosecutor act pushed through the National Assembly by the Democratic Party of Korea, staging rallies outside Cheong Wa Dae, denouncing the legislation as a "jailbreak project" targeting President Lee Jae Myung, and boycotting budget deliberations at the Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee.
PPP Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sik, speaking at an emergency floor meeting held outside Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday, framed President Lee's nomination of Lee Yong-cheol as justice minister nominee as part of what he called "President Lee Jae Myung's jailbreak project — using every means and method available to make his own trials disappear."
Jeong said that Kim Hyun-ji, Jeong Jin-sang, policy adviser Lee Han-ju, UN Ambassador Cha Ji-hun and nominee Lee Yong-cheol had all been members of Lee Jae Myung's transition team when Lee served as Seongnam mayor in 2010. "The Lee Jae Myung–Kim Hyun-ji Seongnam cartel has taken over the governance of the Republic of Korea," Jeong said.
Jeong added that the nominee's role in what he described as the unconstitutional project was to "direct the withdrawal of indictments," while the special prosecutor would serve as the "vanguard of indictment withdrawal." He called on prosecutors to refuse to second investigators to the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency and the Public Prosecution Service.
PPP Chairman Jang Dong-hyeok also joined the criticism, linking the government's judicial and prosecutorial policies to President Lee's ongoing trials. Jang said that expanding the number of Supreme Court justices, creating a four-tier court system, introducing a law criminalizing legal distortion, abandoning the Daejang-dong appeal, dismantling the prosecution and stripping it of supplementary investigative powers, and handpicking loyalists for the heads of the Public Prosecution Service, the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency and the Justice Ministry were all elements of "the Lee Jae Myung jailbreak project."
Jang urged the courts to "firmly acquit every case that this special prosecutor investigates and indicts," and called on the judiciary to declare "what the law is, what justice is, what has been fabricated and what true fabrication is, and who has distorted the law."
Jang said the public would "give the power to impeach if impeachment is needed, and the power needed to resume the trial," and predicted that the special prosecutor act would "ultimately bring down the Lee Jae Myung administration and bring closer the day President Lee goes to prison."
The PPP has sustained its campaign against the legislation in and around the Assembly and Cheong Wa Dae. The party held a denunciation rally on the front steps of the Assembly's main building on Friday, the day the Democratic Party-led chamber passed the bill. On Saturday, it held an outdoor rally near Gyeongbokgung Station in Seoul. Constituency lawmakers also staged solo protests over the weekend.
On Monday, the party convened an emergency supreme council meeting outside Cheong Wa Dae, labeling the legislation the "Lee Jae Myung Jailbreak Act" and urging the president to exercise his veto. After the meeting, party leadership launched a relay of solo protests outside Cheong Wa Dae.
The offensive has extended inside the Assembly as well. PPP members of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee announced they would boycott the committee's budget subcommittee and all future Legislation and Judiciary Committee sessions. The party is also reviewing additional countermeasures, including a request for a constitutional review of the law.
PPP Chief Spokesperson Park Chung-kwon said on YTN Radio on Tuesday that "the method available to an opposition party that cannot win by numbers is a battle for public opinion," adding that "fighting in plenary sessions or standing committee meetings where everyone can watch is effective, but budget subcommittees are held behind closed doors where nothing is visible."
Meanwhile, Democratic Party Floor Leader Han Byung-do told a floor strategy meeting Tuesday that PPP Chairman Jang should "immediately stop inciting impeachment" and that PPP members of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee should "return to budget deliberations at once." Han said that no matter how much the PPP "shakes things up and causes disruption, the Democratic Party will firmly hold the Assembly and process next year's budget bill and legislation without a single error."
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