People Power Party: "Yongbum Kim Offers Only Excuses, No Apology for Gambling ETF Debacle... Parliamentary Probe Needed"

On July 19, the People Power Party called for the resignation of Policy Chief Yongbum Kim at the Blue House, criticizing him for offering nothing but excuses to justify the controversy surrounding single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs). In addition, there is growing demand for a parliamentary-level investigation into the matter.

Assemblyman Park Sooyoung wrote on his social networking service (SNS) Facebook page the same day, "The Lee Jaemyung administration pushed for the launch of the single-stock product 'Samjeonix' (a combination of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix) to boost stock prices ahead of the local elections, turning the stock market into a casino. More than 7 trillion won has flowed into the Samjeonix single-stock ETF just in July. Returns have nearly halved, leaving retail investors in tears."

Yongbum Kim, policy chief. Yonhap News Agency

He continued, "Policy Chief Kim, who spearheaded the product launch, appeared on a TV broadcast today and said, 'We've presented supplementary measures, so the side effects will be resolved,' but he did not apologize for the policy failure. We need to clarify through a parliamentary investigation whether the disregard for market demand and the transformation of Korea into a speculative market was simply a calculation that 'as long as we win the June 3 local election, the rest doesn't matter.'"

Assemblywoman Na Kyungwon also wrote on SNS, "Leveraged ETFs have imposed massive losses on the retirement savings of seniors, seedlings of capital for young people, and the investment funds of 14 million retail investors—this is a disaster of epic proportions, yet there is no admission of policy failure and no apology. Policy Chief Kim must take responsibility for the leveraged ETF debacle, manage the aftermath, and resign immediately."

She further emphasized, "A special investigation should uncover the background and behind-the-scenes drivers of the hasty introduction of leveraged ETFs and the resulting damage to the public. Authorities must thoroughly investigate why the schedule, originally set for the second half of the year, was moved forward to the first half, and whether any public funds, such as the National Pension Fund, were involved in the process."

Former Assemblyman Yoo Seungmin also wrote on SNS, "In a market where Samsung Electronics and SK hynix together account for more than 50% of market capitalization, introducing a high-risk leveraged product that can hardly be called an ETF is inexcusable. We must hold those responsible for this policy failure accountable and clarify who introduced it and with what objectives that led to this situation."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.