Jeong Jeomsik: "Kim Minseok Must Decide Whether to Impeach Cho Heedae... Entire Parliamentary Audit Is an Impeachment Black Hole"

Criticizes move to "rally supporters with the impeachment card"
On OPCON transfer: "Capabilities, not timing, must be the standard"

Jeong Jeomsik, floor leader of the People Power Party, urged Kim Min-seok, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, to "reach a conclusion as soon as possible on whether to pursue the impeachment of Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae."

Jeong held a press briefing at the National Assembly on Oct. 18 and said, "It is highly irresponsible for the ruling party to prolong the confusion while weighing only its own political responsibility over whether to impeach him. Do not hold the judiciary and the fate of the Republic of Korea hostage to your political interests."

He continued, criticizing the move: "Kim is turning the parliamentary audit into an impeachment audit, going beyond partisan political disputes. With the ruling party leader declaring that he will officially discuss impeaching the chief justice, the entire parliamentary audit is being sucked into an impeachment black hole."

Jeong cited livelihood concerns, diplomacy and personnel issues as reasons for the ruling bloc's declining approval ratings, and claimed that the Democratic Party had raised the prospect of impeachment to rally its supporters. He said, "But Kim has played the impeachment card to rally his supporters again amid a crisis of his own making. Rather than overcoming the crisis through policy and competence, he intends to use the extraordinary measure of impeachment to turn around the party's approval ratings."

Jeong Jeomsik, floor leader of the People Power Party, speaks at a press conference on issues related to the parliamentary audit at the National Assembly on the 18th. Yonhap News Agency.

He emphasized, "The mere fact that the leader of the ruling party, which holds a large majority, has officially announced plans to pursue the chief justice's impeachment gives his remarks enormous repercussions and carries the same weight as formally filing an impeachment motion. Kim must take full responsibility for what he said. We will use every means available to block the impeachment motion and impeachment."

On the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON), Jeong said that building military capabilities should take priority over setting a transfer date. "Capabilities, not timing, must be the standard for the transfer of OPCON," he said. "The government and ruling party must stop trying to force the transfer into the president's term timetable and reconsider the schedule through sufficient consultations with the United States."

He added, "It is extremely dangerous to keep making emotional slogans and thinking only about how to tout this as an achievement during the president's term. This government's amateurish and reckless adventurism must not undermine national security."

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