▲ People Power Party Floor Leader Chung Jeom-sik (left) speaks at a Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly on July 6.
People Power Party Floor Leader Chung Jeom-sik responded to the Democratic Party of Korea's plan to propose a special counsel bill for the National Election Commission (NEC) this week and its mention of a third-party recommendation method, stating, "We urge the Democratic Party to cleanly accept a special counsel recommended by the opposition for a thorough investigation of the truth."
During the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly, Floor Leader Chung stated, "The Democratic Party claims that the opposition's rightful demand to exclude the Democratic Party from the special counsel recommendation process is sophistry and absurd."
He continued, "The scope of the special counsel's investigation must inevitably include not only the NEC but also the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, which oversees election support duties. The primary subject of the special counsel's investigation is Wi Cheol-hwan, the acting chairperson of the NEC, who is known as the 'President's dining companion,'" adding, "Based on the principle of excluding interested parties, the Democratic Party's right to recommend a special counsel must naturally be excluded."
Floor Leader Chung also dismissed the Democratic Party's sudden proposal for a third-party recommendation, such as from the Korean Bar Association, stating, "This is also unacceptable given that Acting Chairperson Wi Cheol-hwan is a former president of the Korean Bar Association." He further rejected the idea of a Supreme Court recommendation, saying, "There is no value in reviewing the Supreme Court recommendation method either, given the structure where Supreme Court Justice Roh Tae-ak concurrently serves as the NEC chairperson and incumbent judges also serve as heads of city, provincial, and district election commissions."
Furthermore, regarding the revised Information and Communications Network Act set to take effect on July 7, Floor Leader Chung said, "With the implementation of this 'law that gags online speech,' netizens are suffering from 'censorship phobia,' saying they are 'afraid to even write comments' and that they 'will have to use indirect speech starting tomorrow.'" He proposed to the Democratic Party, "Let us immediately postpone the implementation and begin discussions on re-amending the law to remove the toxic clauses."
He criticized the law, stating, "According to this gag law, whether information online is false or manipulated is determined by an organization under the Korea Communications Commission. If the government fills this organization with pro-government figures, they will judge truth and falsehood according to the tastes of political power." He added, "This marks the beginning of a dictatorial power of control and censorship, and it is clearly unconstitutional and an unprecedented evil law."
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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