Jeong Jeong-sik: "Personnel Disaster, Kang Hoon-sik Must Resign... Kim Hyun-ji to Be Summoned for Audit"

Jeong Jeomsik, floor leader of the People Power Party, stated on the 21st, “Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik, who oversaw and recommended ministerial-level appointments, and Prime Minister Han Sung-sook should resign.” He added, “We will push for the adoption of Kim Hyunji, Deputy Chief of Staff from the Gyeonggi-Seongnam faction, and Jeong Jin-sang, former Senior Political Affairs Secretary to the former leader of the Democratic Party, as witnesses for the upcoming National Assembly audit.”

Attending the Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly that morning, Floor Leader Jeong addressed, among other issues, the petition concerning misconduct involving former Minister of Justice nominee Kim Seungwon. He said, “The Lee Jaemyung administration must reform its personnel affairs team and exclude behind-the-scenes power brokers from the appointment system.”

Jeong Jeomsik, floor leader of the People Power Party, is attending the floor strategy meeting held at the National Assembly on September 18, 2026. Photo by Dongju Yoon

Regarding the resignation of the former nominee Kim, he said, “The decisive reason for his resignation was a petition submitted by his former aides, detailing all sorts of misconduct, such as sexual harassment, drunk driving, abuse of power, and verbal abuse.” He continued, “The Democratic Party is suspected of ignoring the reports of these allegations. If this is true, there needs to be an investigation into whether they buried the tip-offs.”

On the subject of former nominee Kim, he said, “All the doubts revealed during the vetting process, including allegations of lobbying and influence-peddling, suspicions related to his family’s cooperative, and additional allegations arising from the petition, must be thoroughly investigated.” He added, “The Democratic Party must expel the former nominee and assume at least a minimum level of political responsibility.”

Jeong also described the string of failed nominations as a “major disaster,” saying, “Chief of Staff Kang said during the cabinet reshuffle announcement that competence was the standard, and Prime Minister Han said during the government interpellation session that he recommended the nominees because he believed in their abilities. Both of them must take responsibility for the total failure of the vetting process and step down.”

Regarding suspicions of involvement by the Gyeonggi-Seongnam faction in these appointments, he said, “Testimonies suggest that Deputy Chief Kim and former Secretary Jeong were behind the scenes this time.” He continued, “If individuals with no official positions have intervened in the personnel affairs, this is a case of behind-the-scenes power holders manipulating state administration.”

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