SEOUL– The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) strongly protested prosecution investigations that led to arrest warrant requests for former top officials of the previous Moon Jae-in government, the detention of a close aide to party chief Lee Jae-myung and an attempt to raid the party’s headquarters.
Prosecutors sought arrest warrants Tuesday for former Defense Minister Suh Wook and former Coast Guard Commissioner General Kim Hong-hee on charges related to the Moon administration’s conclusion without sufficient evidence that a South Korean fisheries official was killed while attempting to defect to North Korea in 2020.
On Wednesday, prosecutors also apprehended Kim Yong, one of DP leader Lee’s close confidants, on bribery charges, while questioning Noh Young-min, a former chief of staff to Moon, over the 2019 repatriation of two North Korean fishermen against their will. Prosecutors also attempted to raid Kim’s office at the DP headquarters.
They, however, withdrew from the site in western Seoul later at night after an hourslong standoff with DP lawmakers and members at the main entrance.
The main opposition party said it would boycott the ongoing parliamentary audits into government offices over the raid attempt.
“The Yoon Suk-yeol administration is carrying out a political show to revive its approval ratings that have fallen to the floor,” Rep. Jin Sung-joon, the DP’s vice floor leader, said in a briefing outside the party headquarters. “Our party strongly protests this ‘raid show’ being carried out as part of oppressing the opposition and can never accept it.”
The DP claims the probes are politically motivated.
Rep. Park Hong-keun, the party’s floor leader, accused the office of President Yoon Suk-yeol of masterminding the investigation into the Moon administration’s handling of the fisheries official’s death at the hands of North Korea.
“It is obvious that the presidential office is the mastermind,” he said.
Park also called for making public the minutes of parliamentary defense committee meetings from the time of the incident, saying committee members from both the ruling and opposition parties acknowledged circumstances that led to the government’s conclusion that the official attempted to defect.
Park also vowed to reform the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) after the state auditor attempted to question Moon over the fisheries official’s death. The BAI asked Moon to answer questions in writing, but Moon refused, denouncing the request as “disrespectful.”
“It seems that the BAI has pledged to the Yoon Suk-yeol administration to become the hands and feet of its political oppression,” Park said, adding the main opposition is preparing to table a bill on reducing the state auditor’s role and banning inspections based on political reprisal.
DP Rep. Cho Eung-chon claimed that the prosecution’s questioning of Noh signals that a probe of Moon is imminent, while fellow lawmaker Sul Hoon slammed the prosecution for “going overboard” and called on Yoon to behave cautiously.
DP Rep. Kim Eui-kum, who doubles as a spokesperson for the party, condemned the raid as “atrocious behavior that has no precedent in the history of Korean politics.”
“Conducting a raid at the main opposition’s headquarters is a political action by the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, whose favorability rating has fallen to 24 percent, to overcome its difficulties through a political show,” Kim said.
The DP, which has branded the flurry of probes as political reprisal, has filed a complaint against top BAI officials on charges of abusing power and violating the BAI Act.
Source: Yonhap News Agency