Speaking at a news conference at the National Assembly, Song said it would amount to “police appointed by a thief trying to make the thief’s crime disappear.”
He said President Lee Jae-myung had insisted he was the target of a “fabricated indictment” and pushed a parliamentary investigation, and was now “openly” seeking a special counsel to erase alleged wrongdoing. Song called it a privilege “ordinary citizens could not even imagine.”
Song said the Democratic Party, throughout the parliamentary investigation, relied on one-sided claims by convicted criminals including Lee Hwa-young and Nam Wook, but failed to prove an alleged fabricated indictment. Instead, he said, testimony emerged that “poured out” to support Lee’s guilt.
He cited testimony by Bang Yong-cheol, a former vice chairman of Ssangbangwool, who said he met Ri Ho-nam in the Philippines in July 2019 and sent $700,000 as the price for then-Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung’s visit to North Korea. Song also cited testimony by former Ssangbangwool Chairman Kim Seong-tae, who said there was no “salmon sashimi drinking party,” calling it a point-by-point rebuttal of what he described as false claims by Democratic Party lawmakers.
Song said the parliamentary investigation brought the truth “one step closer” and exposed what he called the Democratic Party’s false agitation over a fabricated indictment. He questioned why the matter should move from the investigation to a special counsel, arguing it would pressure investigators into a “false probe” and an “unreasonable” cancellation of prosecutions.
He also said it violates modern rule-of-law principles for a president to appoint a special counsel and for that special counsel to seek to eliminate the appointing authority’s trial. Song said the upcoming local elections are likely to become a vote on whether canceling the president’s prosecution is justified.
He added that the election would ask whether the president’s trial can be erased entirely, whether a president should enjoy such privilege, and whether the country will be one of privilege and unfairness or one of rule of law and justice.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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