People Power Party floor leader Chung Jeom-sik on the 1st called on President Lee Jae-myung to withdraw the nomination of Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Seung-won as justice minister and to declare instead that he will stand trial.
"All six ministerial nominees fall short of public expectations, but the most serious of them, the top candidate for withdrawal, is Rep. Kim, the justice minister nominee," Chung said at a party leadership meeting at the National Assembly.
"Rep. Kim has long positioned himself at the forefront of efforts to drop the charges," Chung said, describing the lawmaker as one of two co-chairs of a group of lawmakers formed to seek the withdrawal of prosecutions in the president's criminal trials. He added that Kim, as the opposition's chief negotiator on the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee at the time, had also led an impeachment push against prosecutors investigating cash-envelope allegations at a Democratic Party convention.
Chung argued that Kim had been picked as the person best suited to handle the withdrawal of the charges against Lee. "Personnel decisions are messages in themselves. Former Justice Minister Chung Sung-ho at least showed some restraint on dropping the charges, but now the president has nominated Rep. Kim, a hard-liner who will show none at all," he said. "It is a message to the public that dropping the charges is the top governing priority in the second year of this administration." He added that Kim was "not qualified to oversee the country's justice administration."
Chung also criticized the absence of a nominee for national police commissioner in the cabinet reshuffle. "The police are now set to monopolize investigative authority in line with the wishes of the government and the ruling party, yet the agency has been run by an acting chief for 20 months," he said. "Does it make any sense that the head of a 130,000-strong organization responsible for public safety and criminal investigations has been vacant for more than 600 days?"
"The president once described the police as an organization with no choice but to show absolute loyalty to those in power," Chung said. "Because that is how he thinks, I suspect the police commissioner post may have been deliberately left empty to foster an internal loyalty contest and bring the organization under his control."
"The public is anxious. People distrust the police's investigative capability and will," Chung said, warning that supplementary investigative authority is set to be abolished in a month. Urging the government and the ruling party to act, he said: "There is still a month left. Reconsider the abolition of supplementary investigative powers. And appoint a national police commissioner immediately and begin police reform."
