Unification Minister Jeong Dong-young on Tuesday criticized the People Power Party for filing a motion calling for his dismissal, saying its “pro-American stance has gone too far.”
Jeong made the remarks after attending the launch ceremony for the third 2030 Youth Advisory Group and a minister-youth dialogue at the Odusan Unification Observatory in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. He told reporters the opposition party should act as South Korean lawmakers, not U.S. lawmakers, and represent the national interest.
The People Power Party filed the motion the previous day, citing Jeong’s remarks last month during a National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee meeting in which he mentioned Kusong City.
Jeong said he had also referred to Kusong City as the location of a uranium enrichment facility during a confirmation hearing last year, but People Power Party members on the committee raised no objection at the time. He said they only began reacting strongly after the United States took issue with his comments.
The United States has reportedly argued that Jeong’s remarks disclosed classified information shared by Washington and has moved to restrict the sharing of satellite intelligence on North Korea. Jeong and the Unification Ministry have rejected the claim, saying the information about Kusong City’s uranium enrichment facility is based on publicly available sources, including overseas think tank reports.
Jeong criticized the People Power Party’s move, saying it is in South Korea’s national interest to press the United States to quickly lift what he called an unreasonable restriction on intelligence sharing about North Korea.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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