-President Lee sincerely apologized to the public... He did well
-The party is also responsible for things reaching this point; as a senior lawmaker, I apologize
-Kim Min-seok should also apologize as the leader of the ruling party
-The People Power Party should stop nitpicking and join constitutional amendment now
-The special counsel bill on fabricated indictment will not include authority to dismiss charges
-Why say "I will stand trial"? It is enough to say it is non-existent
-Additional allegations against Kim Seung-won? I did not know; if I had known, I would have opposed him
-If there was an attempt to cover it up, that is wrong; investigative agencies must uncover the truth
-Han Dong-hoon must also be investigated... He committed a major crime in the act
-Allegations of Seongnam faction's intervention? Merely suspicions, not reality
 
■ Broadcast: SBS Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show (FM 103.5 MHz 7:00 – 9:00)
■ Date: September 21, 2026 (Mon)
■ Host: Attorney Kim Tae-hyun
■ Guest: Democratic Party of Korea Lawmaker Park Ji-won
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : This is someone we meet every other week. We will speak with the "9th-dan grandmaster of politics," Democratic Party of Korea Lawmaker Park Ji-won. Hello.
 
▶Park Ji-won : I cannot say that things are completely fine, but regardless, as a senior lawmaker of the ruling party, I offer an apology regarding the political reality that led the president to issue such a serious apology to the public.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : You are virtually the only political grandmaster across both the ruling and opposition parties. What specific aspect are you apologizing for?
 
▶Park Ji-won : In any case, the people desperately wanted a word from the president through a press conference. The very fact that things reached this point carries responsibility for me as a senior lawmaker of the ruling party. Furthermore, it is our Democratic Party that made the president say, "I was wrong." That is why I, at least, am apologizing.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : Lawmaker, overall, how did you view the press conference? Setting aside the specific words, the president's attitude, tone, and facial expressions were completely different from last time.
 
▶Park Ji-won : They changed completely. Even before he held the press conference, I said dozens of times that he needed to be humble, candidly admit what needs to be admitted, speak toward the future, and say "it is my fault" rather than blaming others. This time, he did relatively well.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : He reportedly said about 13 times, "It is because of my shortcomings."
 
▶Park Ji-won : That was sufficient. People should not continue to nitpick now, asking what was insufficient and saying this and that.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : So you mean that the president sincerely assessed the current situation and apologized.
 
▶Park Ji-won : That is right. As senior reporter Sung Han-yong pointed out in his "Behind the Scenes" column in the Hankyoreh this morning, we need to pursue a constitutional amendment right now. When the president has clearly declared early in his term that he will not pursue consecutive presidential terms, which had been an obstacle, the People Power Party should join in the constitutional amendment. Continuously nitpicking by saying they will not do it or questioning this and that is an act that ruins politics and the country. That is my point.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : We will discuss the constitutional amendment. First, the day after the press conference, the president diagnosed the current situation as an emergency. As a political grandmaster, what do you think is most needed at this timing for the president and the ruling bloc to escape this emergency situation?
 
▶Park Ji-won : They must conduct politics that the public desires. People must believe that neither a constitutional amendment for consecutive terms nor the dismissal of indictments will be pursued. And since the president spoke about not pursuing consecutive terms and the dismissal of indictments, they should seize upon that firmly. Since the president stated it, they should say, "Do not even dream of it going forward." If I were the opposition leader, that is how I would push forward. If people keep doubting and framing it, saying, "Even after I do this, does the opposition and the public still not believe me?" then other thoughts could emerge. Therefore, I believe he handled those matters well, and no matter what anyone says, he must maintain what he has said.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : After the president said he has no intention of seeking consecutive terms,
 
▶Park Ji-won : He said he would not do it. And realistically, it cannot be done. It would be different if the Democratic Party held more than 200 seats. Even if there are progressive lawmakers to secure that, people who cannot be trusted would emerge, so I would be the first to oppose it.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : Even you, Lawmaker?
 
▶Park Ji-won : Yes, I am opposed. How much longer will I serve as a member of the National Assembly? I am 84 years old; what glory would I seek to pursue consecutive terms that the people do not want? I do not support it. Therefore, physically speaking, you would have to bring over more than 20 lawmakers from the People Power Party, which is impossible. Jang Dong-hyeok clearly knows it cannot be done, and Han Dong-hoon clearly knows it cannot be done. They should not be making such claims.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : But Representative Kim Min-seok proposed amending the constitution following the president's press conference.
 
▶Park Ji-won : That is why, since the president apologized, I believe Representative Kim Min-seok, as the leader of the ruling party, should also sincerely apologize to the public for what went wrong. And his proposal to pursue a constitutional amendment was a sound argument. That must be done.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : But the opposition party does not seem to be moving at all.
 
▶Park Ji-won : Well, one should blame that opposition party that is not moving. What president proposes doing this early in their term? In my view, if we fail to amend the constitution by next year, the constitutional amendment will fall through completely again. Successive presidents have always made pledges during elections, refused to touch it early in their terms because it becomes a political black hole, and then called for a constitutional amendment toward the end of their terms. By then, presidential candidates have already emerged.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : Then they oppose it.
 
▶Park Ji-won : They oppose it. So at present, while there may be people who dream of becoming presidential candidates, no one has declared yet.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : That is true. The president is only in his second year.
 
▶Park Ji-won : Exactly. Therefore, if we cannot amend the constitution this year or next year, we will never be able to do it. Must we continue to live under the shackles of the Fifth and Sixth Republics? How great would it be if the People Power Party accepted such a great opportunity to amend the constitution?
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : Why do you think they are not accepting it?
 
▶Park Ji-won : Those people have no philosophy.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : No philosophy?
 
▶Park Ji-won : They simply unconditionally dislike Lee Jae-myung. It has not even been a year and a half since he became president, yet is President Lee Jae-myung plotting an insurrection or staging a coup? Saying they will drag down his term and so forth is truly malicious. The Democratic Party is not like their party, which disrupts the constitutional order, nor are the people.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : The president said he has no intention of seeking consecutive terms, and regarding the dismissal of indictments, he requested the National Assembly to remove the provision allowing the dismissal of charges from the special counsel bill.
 
▶Park Ji-won : Then that settles it.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : Then, for now, the Legislation and Judiciary Committee will only include matters related to fabricated indictments in the special counsel bill and will not grant that authority to the special prosecutor, since the president stated so.
 
▶Park Ji-won : That is right. Naturally, they will not grant it. And although Lawmaker Kim Seung-won resigned, he was a co-representative of the gathering for dismissing indictments, but he clearly stated that even if he became minister, he would not do it and opposed it.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : But in some quarters, they say this is—
 
▶Park Ji-won : Those people in some quarters are the problem. You cannot trust what those people say, even if they claim they can make meju out of soybeans. If you say this, they seize on that; if you say that, they seize on this.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : They argue that he should simply say fundamentally, "I will stand trial after my term ends."
 
▶Park Ji-won : Why say that when no one even knows whether there will be a trial, or how things will unfold in the future? Why must he say such things? It is enough to say it is non-existent. Regarding consecutive terms as well, the president has never once said he would seek a second term. Yet should he go around constantly saying, "I will not steal"?
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : Understood.
 
▶Park Ji-won : Putting shackles on everything and pressuring the president like that is itself rotten politics.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : But Lawmaker, what if the special counsel on fabricated indictments conducts an investigation and actually discovers fabricated indictments and forged evidence? What happens after that?
 
▶Park Ji-won : That itself would become an issue. Those individuals would be punished. Under President Kim Dae-jung, when we set regaining power as the greatest reform objective and innovation, what was that path? It was the success of the incumbent president, that is, the success of President Kim Dae-jung. A few people have pointed this out, but if President Lee Jae-myung becomes a successful president, the public will allow the Democratic Party candidate to regain power.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : That would be so.
 
▶Park Ji-won : Then, even if such issues emerge, the public will say that should not happen.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : To put it bluntly, his post-presidency would be safe?
 
▶Park Ji-won : That is right. People would say that should not happen, that one should not treat a former president like that. Look at history. We retained power, and President Roh Moo-hyun was elected, but the special counsel on the remittance to North Korea was launched anyway.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : That is true.
 
▶Park Ji-won : What was the conclusion of that North Korea remittance special counsel? They tried to extract the claim that the remittances to North Korea were ordered by President Kim Dae-jung. Am I not the victim?
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : That is true.
 
▶Park Ji-won : But that was not the truth, and because I insisted that even if I were to die, this was not true, the truth eventually emerged, even though I was sentenced to 12 years in prison after the prosecution demanded 20 years in the first and second trials. That is why he must become a successful president. What conclusion did the people reach regarding the North Korea remittance special counsel? Eventually, when the Uri Party and the Democratic Party merged, the Democratic Party apologized for that special counsel. The Lee Jae-myung administration must become one where the people protect the president, and retaining power is even more necessary for that. That is what I am saying.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : Understood. Let us talk about Lawmaker Kim Seung-won, the former ministerial nominee. He resigned on Saturday morning. But the day before, a petition regarding sexual harassment and drunk driving was reportedly delivered to the Blue House, and on the evening of the day he resigned, there was an exclusive report by KBS regarding that. Did the Legislation and Judiciary Committee not know about this?
 
▶Park Ji-won : We did not know. Whether other members of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee knew is something I cannot say because we have not discussed it yet. But I definitely did not know. If I had known, I would have opposed it.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : I believe you would have, Lawmaker. If you had known.
 
▶Park Ji-won : I would have opposed it. I did not know. Of course, not knowing is also a sin against the people. We could face scrutiny over why we were completely unaware, but we did not know. That is my view. That is why Representative Kim Min-seok also felt there was no better nominee. Even up to that point, I had not confirmed the truth of the KBS report directly from him, but when such reports came out, what could one say? I said the exact same thing as Representative Kim Min-seok: we did not know. Representative Kim Min-seok probably did not know either. Because on the night before the resignation announcement, I consulted with Representative Kim Min-seok from Haenam.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : On what to do? Because it was after the president's press conference?
 
▶Park Ji-won : That is right. In politics, Representative Kim and I served President Kim Dae-jung together. What did he say? He said that no matter how unfairly treated one feels, if the people do not believe it, one must follow the people's will. We shared that opinion and discussed it. So we decided to observe further developments. I had already discussed his resignation with Representative Kim Min-seok within the party, though not publicly.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : So on Friday evening, when the president's press conference took place, within the party—
 
▶Park Ji-won : We discussed it in the evening. It was probably around 11:00 p.m.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : Even without knowing about this sexual harassment allegation?
 
▶Park Ji-won : Without knowing, you could tell just by looking at public sentiment. Media reports and public opinion kept showing that people did not believe the situation itself. Questions over solicitations, and especially, regardless of what was declared, nominee Kim Seung-won had served as co-chair of the gathering for dismissing indictments, which invited these suspicions. Therefore, in any case, if the people dislike it so much, we coordinated our views that it would be best for him to step down.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : So Representative Kim Min-seok had already coordinated this on Friday evening, and the next day, for whatever reason, nominee Kim Seung-won voluntarily resigned. Then came the KBS report.
 
▶Park Ji-won : That is right.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : But nominee Kim Seung-won seems to have known about this. Because according to exclusive reports from KBS and TV Chosun yesterday, on the day before he resigned—which was right when you, Lawmaker, were coordinating with Representative Kim Min-seok—there were reports that he met with former aides who wrote the petition to try to cover it up.
 
▶Park Ji-won : If he knew about it and still filed a complaint, Lawmaker Kim Seung-won was in the wrong. What was done wrong must be acknowledged as wrong. Therefore, whether such suspicions are true is something investigative agencies must look into going forward. We will not unconditionally protect him.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : Although he resigned, does this not leave significant aftershocks that burden the party?
 
▶Park Ji-won : There are many aftershocks. That is why they should hear his explanation and have investigative agencies investigate and uncover the truth. Similarly, if Lawmaker Han Dong-hoon exposed all kinds of materials that belong in prosecution cabinets—whether they are confidential information acquired in the course of public duties or not—then he must also take responsibility. I served as the director of the National Intelligence Service. If I were to disclose the X-files that I came to know while serving as NIS director right now, I would become an enormous star starting from SBS. Truly, I live with a detonator inside me. However, even if I gained immense public popularity, I would have to go to prison for violating the National Intelligence Service Act. That is why I say: if Lawmaker Kim Seung-won committed such wrongdoing, even though he has resigned, he should be investigated. Lawmaker Han Dong-hoon should also be investigated. And Park Ji-won will not speak of such things.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : Understood. But regardless, from the ruling bloc's perspective, this has become an appointment disaster regarding nominee Kim Seung-won. Opposition lawmakers are also saying—
 
▶Park Ji-won : Please talk a bit more about Han Dong-hoon. Let us talk about Han Dong-hoon as well.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : There is something important that I am curious about.
 
▶Park Ji-won : Because you are friends with Anchor Kim Tae-hyun, you keep avoiding it.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : What am I avoiding?
 
▶Park Ji-won : I said that jokingly. It was a joke, but it is true.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : Understood.
 
▶Park Ji-won : Han Dong-hoon is a criminal caught in the act who committed an enormous crime.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : Understood.
 
▶Park Ji-won : How could he do such a thing? He brought out everything—prosecution investigation records, transcript materials that belong in cabinets, and indictment recommendation documents—and disclosed them. The public currently thinks that is right. But is that not fruit of the poisonous tree? Even if people think it is right, he must take responsibility for that act itself. If Han Dong-hoon is not punished, this is not a nation governed by the rule of law.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : Understood. As far as I know, the investigation is currently underway at Yeongdeungpo Police Station.
 
▶Park Ji-won : That is why I say let them investigate. In exchange, investigate Kim Seung-won over those suspicions as well.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : Understood. Lawmaker, this is the final question. Today the opposition and—
 
▶Park Ji-won : Let us talk longer today.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : This is also important. The media pointed out today asking whether things turned out this way because the Gyeonggi Seongnam faction behind the scenes intervened in personnel appointments.
 
▶Park Ji-won : Well, I have also heard that pointed out, but I know Chief of the Annex Office Kim Hyun-ji very well. I have known her well since she was an aide, and she is a junior from my hometown. There are only suspicions that the Seongnam faction intervened; it is not reality.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : The reality is not like that?
 
▶Park Ji-won : It is not that it is not like that. It is that nothing has been proven in reality. If such suspicions turn out to be true, I say the president must thoroughly eradicate it.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : Understood. That was Lawmaker Park Ji-won. Thank you.
 
▶Park Ji-won : I said let us do more.
 
▷Kim Tae-hyun : You do not want to leave? Shall we do more?
 
▶Park Ji-won : Yes.

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[SBS Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show]