Song Eon-seok, floor leader of the People Power Party (PPP), claimed on Wednesday that "the current administration has mobilized all power organs — the National Assembly, the Ministry of Justice, the special counsel, and the National Intelligence Service (NIS) — to secure the dismissal of charges in President Lee Jae-myung's illegal remittance-to-North Korea case."
Song made the remarks at a party policy meeting held at the National Assembly. "Yesterday, the Ministry of Justice suspended prosecutor Park Sang-yong from duty," he said. "They cite violations of professional obligations, but no specifics have been provided. They simply suspended him without any explanation of what specific conduct allegedly raised concerns about investigative fairness."
He continued, "The NIS appointed a defense lawyer from the North Korea remittance case as its chief of the planning and coordination office, and then began insisting the remittance to North Korea was fabricated, claiming the NIS confirmed the facts — on a matter the court already ruled to be false."
Song questioned, "They separated the prosecution's investigative and indictment powers, gave the special counsel authority to investigate President Lee's case, and now are they planning to grant retaliatory indictment powers against the prosecutors who investigated the president? Surely they are not thinking of granting the power to dismiss charges as well?"
He warned, "This directly contradicts the very purpose of the prosecution reform that the Democratic Party championed. This is nothing short of a frenzied trampling of the Constitution with every power organ — the National Assembly, the prosecution, the Ministry of Justice, the special counsel, and the NIS — fully mobilized. It could be recorded in history as a palace coup by the Lee Jae-myung administration."
Targeting President Lee directly, Song pressed, "I urge you to stop standing by while the nation's criminal justice system itself is being trampled for the sake of dismissing your own charges. I strongly demand that President Lee publicly declare to the nation that there will be no dismissal of charges during his term in office."