Former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, who has formally declared his candidacy for the leadership of the Democratic Party of Korea, took direct aim at former party leader Jung Chung-rae amid a dispute over a "May processing request" for supplementary investigation authority, saying, "The absence of memory does not mean the absence of fact."
Appearing on CBS Radio on Sunday, Kim said, "(Jung) says no bill was presented, but a bill moves forward through discussions between the party and the government."
Earlier, Kim had said in effect that "the government tried to process the second prosecution reform bill in May, but the party delayed it," prompting Jung to counter that "I have no such memory," setting off a war of nerves between the two sides.
Kim said, "I proposed processing it in May, and that was fully conveyed to the party leadership by key party officials, but the opinion came back the other way, that it would be better not to do it then." He added, "Just because I don't go into every little detail doesn't mean the facts disappear."
He then stressed, "More importantly, on the issue of supplementary investigation authority, I had already organized the government's position as 'abolition,' and my position has been consistent. Because I tried to move it forward as quickly as possible, I don't think it is a point of contention."
Explaining the background to his candidacy declaration that day, in which he mentioned that "the harm of self-serving politics threw the party and party-government cooperation into confusion" and asked for "a decision to replace the party leader," Kim said, "The previous party operations continued to create discord between the party and the government." He added, "I also believe it failed to steer major internal party matters stably through deliberation and debate."
He further pointed out, "The most representative of the noise and problems that arose from this was the party merger process, in which procedure and deliberation were ignored." He added, "The prosecution reform process could actually have proceeded far more stably, but I believe there were considerable problems with management along the way."
Kim also rebutted Supreme Council member Lee Sung-yun, classified as part of the pro-Jung Chung-rae faction, who on Facebook pointed out that Kim did not take part in the National Assembly vote on the resolution to lift martial law and argued, "He says he was on the phone with a Democratic Party lawmaker just before martial law was declared, so shouldn't he have rushed to the National Assembly immediately?" Kim said, "This is a clear falsehood, so how can someone with a prosecutorial background do such a thing?" adding, "He will probably have to apologize to me."
Regarding the "grand unification strategy" laid out in his candidacy declaration, Kim explained, "One of the things I can do relatively best is easing the various conflicts after the party convention."
He added, "Internally, we must unite the same forces, and with parties that are more strongly progressive there will be an alliance. Expansion also proceeds simultaneously." He continued, "Above all, I intend to immediately begin recruiting new figures on a large scale and in a reasonable manner, spanning progressives, conservatives, and moderates."
