[Political Show] Yoon Young-il "'Political Repression' Lee Jae-myung Retains President's Position? Are you saying you're going to oppose for the rest of your life?"

■ Broadcast : SBS Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show (FM 103.5 MHz 7:00 ~ 9:00) ■ Date : March 23, 2023 (Thu)

■ Host : Kim Tae-hyun
Lawyer ■ Cast : Yoon Young-hyun People's Power Spokesperson

▷Kim Tae-hyun : Representative Lee Jae-myung of the MDP was indicted yesterday without arrest. The Democratic Party decided to make an exception to the suspension of office in the event of an indictment against Lee. In the case of the People's Power, despite the town seat of Assemblyman Ha Young-je, he started a campaign to abolish the privilege of non-arrest. Let's talk to the People's Power spokesperson Yoon by phone and talk about these issues. Hello.

▶Yoon: Hello.

Kim Tae-hyun: Yesterday, Lee Jae-myung, the representative of the MDP, was indicted for the second time. The prosecution seems to view Lee as the final person responsible for the allegations against Yurye, Daejang-dong, and Seongnam FC, and that he designed and carried it out himself. How do you see the prosecution's indictment yesterday?

▶Yoon: Judging from the evidence so far, of course this should have been prosecuted. But it's too late. Wasn't the allegations first reported in August of '21? That's why the investigation was launched in September, more than a year and six months ago. However, in July last year, the prosecution again accelerated the investigation to the level of re-investigation, and the prosecution picked up speed, and it is very late.

Kim Tae-hyun : But if you look at this, when you say, "Half of the shares in Cheonhwa-dong-in No. 1 belong to him," I don't know if the "he" is Lee Jae-myung or not, so the details about this 42.8 billion pledge are missing.

▶Yoon: So it seems that you are asking about the 42.8 billion and whether or not to file additional charges.

Kim Tae-hyun : There are reports that Kim Man-bae's mouth has not yet been opened.

▶Yoon: Whether there is enough evidence or not, it's difficult to answer that part because I don't know the status of the investigation, but I know there is definitely a move to prosecute further. If so, shouldn't the prosecution have enough evidence to prosecute?

Kim Taehyun : Okay. Representative Lee Jae-myung saw yesterday that it is an arrest warrant show, a seizure and search show. When I was talking about this, I used the phrase "prosecution." After all, the answer was set for prosecution. What is your assessment of Lee's reaction to yesterday's blitzkrieg of prosecutors?

▶Yoon: This is an issue that has dragged on for more than one year and six months, and if so, I will make my own judgment about how much thought Lee Jae-myung himself has given to the parties in the meantime. If so, Representative Lee Jae-myung will have his own logic to defend himself. And I think he's mentally armed. But the facts are more important than any kind of mental dignity, so this and the outcome of the trial will have nothing to do with it, we'll have to wait and see.

Kim Taehyun : Okay. After all, one of the key issues is whether the prosecution's accusations are correct or whether Lee Jae-myung's allegations are correct will be determined by the courts, through the trial process. One of the key issues was whether Representative Lee Jae-myung would be able to retain his position as the leader of the MDP, but yesterday, the MDP Party Affairs Committee made a decision to keep Lee Jae-myung as president in relation to Article 80 of the Party Constitution. How do you see the Democratic Committee's judgment yesterday?

▶Yoon: It was obviously expected. I made this decision because of Article 80 of the Party Constitution, a provision that is in fact unpopular. If you look at this, if you look at Article 80, paragraph 1, it says, "A party official accused of corruption may be suspended from his or her duties," so I think this is an expression of a certain spirit that it is inappropriate for the party to do its job in the circumstances of an indictment. The abstract word appears twice in this strict party constitution, "If an unfair reason such as political suppression is recognized, it shall be determined differently by a vote of the Party Affairs Committee." Since this does not come out of what it means to be unfair or what it means to admit it, the conclusion is that the political organization predetermines the judgment of innocence to be decided by the court. Then there is no reason to have paragraph 1. You can go behind and change everything politically. So I see this as just a visible and obvious procedure to keep Lee Jae-myung in office.

Kim Tae-hyun: So, in the eyes of spokesman Yoon Young-hyun, Article 80 of the Party Constitution contains Article 3 instead of Article 1, and since Representative Lee Jae-myung made this decision yesterday not only against Representative Lee Jae-myung, but also on Assemblyman Ki Dong-min and Assemblyman Lee Su-jin, Article 80 of the MDP Party Constitution is effectively neutralized.

▶Yoon: Right. That's exactly what I said. Isn't it a structure in which an indicted party official is supposed to tell the committee of political repression, and if he talks about it, he will accept everything? Especially if they're in the mainstream. You heard this as political repression. If the MDP is the ruling party, the reason for political repression will not be recognized, so the very existence of this regulation can sound like a statement that the MDP will oppose for life. Wouldn't it?

Kim Taehyun : Is that so? Are you saying that in the case of the ruling party, it is unlikely to be prosecuted for political repression?

▶Yoon: Right.

Kim Taehyun : Okay. Now, in the end, Lee Jae-myung will remain as president. Then, before the general elections, won't there be pressure from non-prominent lawmakers over the issue of Representative Lee Jae-myung's departure? If you look at the talk coming out of the Democratic Party right now, there's all kinds of talk from orderly exit theory. From the perspective of the power of the people, what do you think will happen to Chairman Lee Jae-myung's departure in the future?

▶Yoon: Will we be able to maintain this system until the general elections? Aren't there two indictments now, physically? There are more cases expected to be prosecuted than there are prosecutions. And if you think about having two indictments, it's probably going to be very hard to get on trial, physically. You will have to keep going back and forth to the court for the trial, and of course you will have to prepare for the trial. Is it possible to perform duties normally? In that case, the Democratic Party will also be represented anyway. We're going to have to rally around the center, so we're going to have to take a hard line when it comes to loans. If that happens, the political crunch will continue, and there will be a lot of pressure from within the party ahead of the general elections, even if there is an election.

Kim Tae-hyun : Yes.

▶Yoon : So, if I say "orderly exit," shouldn't Chairman Lee Jae-myung be allowed to leave his seat at some appropriate time? I'm speaking from the Democratic Party's standpoint.

Kim Tae-hyun: But that's an aspect of Yoon's party position, and realistically, do you think there is a possibility that Chairman Lee Jae-myung will step down on his own, whether or not he leaves in such an orderly manner?

▶Yoon: I think you can't do it at a certain point.

Kim Taehyun : You mean that there may come a situation where you can't do it.

▶Yoon: Yes. Taehyun Kim: Okay.

Let's talk about the People's Power Party. Lawmaker Ha Young-je has been charged with violating the Political Finance Act and is now facing a vote on a motion to arrest him in the National Assembly. There was an article saying that a member of the House of Representatives was texting members of the ruling party to disapprove of the vote. And in the ruling party, a signature drive to abolish the privilege of non-arrest is in full swing. What is the mood in the party about this mixed atmosphere, this now?

▶Yoon: Our party insisted on giving up the privilege of non-arrest against Chairman Lee Jae-myung. We decided it was common sense because it wasn't a situation to use the privilege of non-arrest. I don't think we can say anything differently about this issue just because the party is a member of our party. So, in effect, within the party, give up this privilege of non-arrest. I think it's actually a partisan argument that this motion for arrest should be passed.

Kim Tae-hyun : Actually, it's a party argument.

▶Yoon: Yes, I think it's actually a party argument. That's why some members of Congress are making pledges to waive the privilege of non-arrest and encouraging them to participate.

Kim Tae-hyun : And those lawmakers, for example, now look at the names of Park Jeong-ha, Choi Hyung-doo, Lee Tae-kyu, Yoo Yoo-dong, and Kim Hyung-dong. I'm going to give up my non-arrest privilege if something like this happens later.

▶Yoon: Right. So we have to do something about this by changing the Constitution, but that's not practical, so let's actually codify this in the form of a public pledge, and I think it's a move like this.

Kim Tae-hyun: So, when we vote on the arrest motion against Congressman Ha Young-je, almost all the members of the People's Power are likely to approve it. Can we look at it this way?

▶Yoon: I see it that way.

Kim Tae-hyun: So what about the Democratic Party? At the end of the day, if the Democrats don't approve it, this won't pass.

▶Yoon: I think the Democratic Party is going to be very worried about this. If you vote for the arrest motion, then Representative Lee Jae-myung will be criticized for what you have done, and if you vote against it in the same way, you will be criticized again for bulletproof even the ruling party legislators to save the cause of Representative Lee Jae-myong's bulletproof. Ultimately, the Democratic Party's actions at that time are likely to go against the common sense of the people.

Kim Taehyun : Okay. Let's take a look at issues related to diplomacy with Japan. Democrats say, "We need a national investigation." Democratic Party Senior Vice Leader Jin Sung-joon, who appeared on our show yesterday, even said, "We cannot rule out the possibility of pursuing impeachment against the president after the national investigation." What do you think of this offensive by the Democrats on this issue?

▶Yoon: It's too much of an offensive. First of all, I want to do a national investigation, but I mean that we start with humiliation diplomacy with Japan, whether or not we have discussed issues that are not on the agenda. So you're not going to call the prime minister of Japan, for example, and ask him about this. There's nothing anyone can confirm. It's just a political offensive and it's likely to end.

Kim Tae-hyun: Yes. Yoon: And then the Democrats keep talking about impeachment.

▶ It's too easy to use such extreme words just because it happened once. There's a requirement that impeachment is. Whether you violated the Constitution or the law in the execution of your duties, you will not be caught in that. Isn't it a cliché enough to keep threatening the ruling party with the word impeachment just because it has a lot of seats?

Kim Tae-hyun : Yes.

▶Yoon : If I say a little more, I keep using the word humiliation, "humiliation." You have to look at the relationship with the other person. I would define it as an expression that we use when we are far behind Japan. I don't think it's the bilateral relationship we had 20 or 30 years ago. Koreans' purchasing power has long been higher than that of Japanese. The standard of living has increased. Then, the perception that the people have about Korea-Japan relations is not that they see Japan as a country far ahead of our country as in the past, but that we have many parts ahead of us and are on an equal level, and we have changed to such a degree of confidence, but we still use the word humiliation in our relations with Japan. Kon-woo Lee I think it's some kind of past-stuck consciousness of Democrats who see themselves too small and fail to reflect the changed times.

Kim Taehyun : Okay. That's it for today. Until now, he was the spokesman of the People's Power. Mr. Spokesperson, thank you for coming out today.

▶Yoon: Thank you.

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