Former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok on Monday rejected allegations raised by Democratic Party Supreme Council member Lee Sung-yoon that he had failed to participate in the vote on the resolution demanding the lifting of the Dec. 3 emergency martial law, saying, "I thought this was something the People Power Party was saying," and "It reminded me of the Daejang-dong attacks."
Appearing on KBS radio that day, Kim said, "I was inside the National Assembly at the time of the vote and was seated in the main chamber immediately after the vote," adding, "I have already explained that process several times." He continued, "The claim that I did not come even after receiving a call about martial law is also a false statement," criticizing, "Since this is defamation through false claims, doing politics that way will make things difficult."
Regarding the "5·18 sanctuary" remarks by Lee Byung-tae, the former vice chairman of the Regulatory Rationalization Committee who recently resigned, Kim said, "This is not a matter of freedom of expression but of constitutional values," and stated, "The resignation was inevitable."
He continued, "It is the proper course of politics to use this opportunity to push forward even a 'two-point constitutional amendment' that ties together the inclusion of the 5·18 in the constitutional preamble and the National Election Commission issue," urging, "The People Power Party should also make a decision rather than merely talking about 5·18 in words."
On the controversy over appointments aimed at broadening the base, he emphasized, "The more so, the more widely we should use people," and, "Vetting should be more rigorous, but the tone of integration in appointments must continue to be maintained."
He also clarified his position on the government's move to abolish supplementary investigation authority. Regarding concerns over investigative gaps, Kim explained, "Based on the separation of investigation and prosecution, moving to abolish supplementary investigation for now was inevitable in the larger flow of fundamentally eliminating the harms of politicized prosecutors."
