'Same legal label doesn't make the contents identical'
Democratic Party lawmaker defends Lee over Kim Moon-gi remarks, Land Ministry pressure claim
Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Moon Jin-seog on Friday criticized People Power Party lawmaker Han Dong-hoon for drawing a parallel between false-statement cases involving former President Yoon Suk Yeol and President Lee Jae Myung, saying "wrapping two things in the same paper does not make the contents identical."
In a Facebook post that day, Moon said the two cases share only the legal label of "publication of false facts" and are otherwise entirely different. "One involves statements proven false by evidence; the other is a fabricated indictment stitched together from circumstantial inference — I would hope Han could at least tell the difference," Moon said.
Moon argued that the nature of Yoon's past statements is fundamentally different from the charges facing Lee.
"Yoon Suk Yeol said he had come to know the Buddhist monk Geonjin only through a party acquaintance and had never met him together with his wife — yet evidence poured out showing he had been close to Kim Keon Hee and others," Moon said. "His claim that he had never introduced a lawyer to former Yongsan Tax Office chief Yoon Woo-jin was also overturned by testimony that he personally introduced attorney Lee Nam-seok."
Moon took a different view of Lee's statements regarding the late Kim Moon-gi, former head of the first development division at Seongnam Urban Development Corp., describing the matter as one of subjective perception.
"President Lee Jae Myung said he did not know Kim Moon-gi," Moon said. "Can a politician who interacts with tens of thousands of people really be expected to prove his memory of someone from a single photograph?"
Moon went on to say that knowing or not knowing a person is a matter of subjective awareness. "Just because Han Dong-hoon has taken photos with voters in Buk-gu, Busan, does not mean he 'knows' all of them," Moon said.
Moon also said Lee's remarks about pressuring the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport over the Baekhyeon-dong development project could not be considered a publication of false facts.
"The same applies to the sense of pressure he felt toward the Land Ministry," Moon said. "How can expressing what one personally felt be deemed false?"
Moon then said the legal adage — "after 10 years as a prosecutor you do not understand civil law; after 15, criminal law; after 20, the law itself" — seemed to apply squarely to Han.
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