Jeong Jeom-sik, floor leader of the People Power Party, on the 14th delivered a direct rebuke over the domestic stock market plunge, saying, "We can no longer entrust the fate of the Korean economy to Kim Yong-beom, chief of the presidential policy office."
At a floor leadership meeting held at the National Assembly that day, Jeong said, "Yesterday the KOSPI plunged nearly 9% and broke below the 7,000 line," adding, "The circuit breaker, which halts all stock trading for a set time when the market crashes, has been triggered seven times this year." He pointed out, "The opposition and experts have continuously flagged excessive volatility since last year," and criticized, "But the Lee Jae-myung administration was intoxicated by the flashy figure of KOSPI 5,000 and closed its ears to criticism and warnings."
He argued that the government itself had stoked instability in the stock market. "Last year the vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission said, 'Debt-financed investment can also be viewed as a concept of leverage investment,' effectively encouraging retail investors to invest with borrowed money," he said, delivering a strong critique that "introducing ETFs for single stocks such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix was the worst decision." He said, "Citizens complain that they feel dizzy when they look at the KOSPI," and urged, "President Lee Jae-myung should dismiss policy office chief Kim, the main culprit of the leveraged ETF disaster, and conduct a full review of the economic team."
Regarding negotiations over the National Assembly's committee structure, he denounced the ruling party, saying, "The Democratic Party keeps repeating threatening media plays that it will take all 18 standing committees." He argued, "If you won't be satisfied until you take them all, then take them all. But this time, unilaterally revise the National Assembly Act so that the first party in the Assembly monopolizes all committee chairmanships, and then take them." He continued, "Then the People Power Party will also join the standing committees," and said, "Stop deceiving the public into believing that negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties exist through threats that are not really negotiations and meaningless stalling."
