The opposition demanded that President Lee Jae-myung withdraw the nominations of all remaining minister candidates after Kim Seung-won stepped down as justice minister nominee. People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyuk urged Lee to act decisively, saying the entire cabinet and presidential office should be overhauled.
Speaking at a party leadership meeting at the National Assembly on the 21st, Jang said of the former nominee: "They said the more you looked at him the better the appointment seemed, but in reality he was at the level of a petty criminal who had committed all sorts of offenses." He added that drunk driving, verbal abuse of aides, accounting irregularities at the Gyeonggi provincial party chapter and further allegations of improper solicitation "showed all the hallmarks of the Democratic Party."
Jang pushed the allegations surrounding the former nominee into a broader question about vetting at the presidential office. "On the day former aides delivered a petition to Hong Ihk-pyo, senior presidential secretary for political affairs, the Democratic Party unilaterally adopted the confirmation hearing report, and the next day the president said at a news conference that he had not made a final decision on appointing Kim Seung-won," he said. "Unless the political affairs secretary buried the petition, the president and the Democratic Party knew and still tried to push the appointment through."
He also alleged that Kim had been told the contents of the petition in advance. "On the afternoon of the president's news conference, he met the former aides, pressed them about the petition and said he had no intention of stepping down," Jang said. "He even asked whether it would be reported. Who told Kim Seung-won about this?"
Jang drew a parallel with an earlier case. "In the past, over the nomination funds case involving lawmaker Kim Byung-kee, former lawmaker Lee Soo-jin submitted a petition to Kim Hyun-ji, who was then an aide to party leader Lee Jae-myung," he said. "That petition also ended up with Kim Byung-kee himself. The same thing has happened through the same reporting line."
He continued: "Wouldn't Kim Hyun-ji, who can get anything done, have been involved this time as well? The responsibility of the presidential office personnel line and whether Kim Hyun-ji was involved must be established. Kim Hyun-ji must be made to appear at this parliamentary audit."
Jang also sharpened his attacks on the remaining minister nominees. Targeting Kang Shin-chul, the nominee for defense minister, he said: "He cannot even say that North Korea is our main enemy. His entire family received special housing allocations for displaced residents. He has no integrity, and even less patriotism."
"Putting the vice minister who created a housing hell and the vice minister who designed a tax bomb side by side in minister posts is like pouring oil on a burning hell," he said. "The public is now rejecting the Lee Jae-myung government's conduct of state affairs itself. All remaining nominees must be withdrawn."
