Chung Jom-sig, floor leader of the People Power Party, said the prison sentence handed down to independent lawmaker Kang Sun-woo, formerly of the Democratic Party, over nomination bribery charges is "not an individual case of corruption but a Democratic Party nomination bribery scandal," and called on Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok to "apologize before the public."
Chung made the remarks at a People Power Party supreme council meeting at the National Assembly on the 15th, describing the outcome in Kang's case as a matter of justice taking its course. A day earlier, Kang was sentenced to two years and six months in prison on charges of receiving 100 million won (about $70,000) from former Seoul Metropolitan Council member Kim Kyung in January 2022 in exchange for a nomination ahead of the eighth nationwide local elections.
"Investigations and trials move at the speed of light for opposition lawmakers and endlessly slowly for ruling party lawmakers. The rule of suppressing the opposition and protecting the ruling party appears without exception," Chung said. He added that in Kang's case, a search and seizure was carried out, she was indicted on March 27, and a first-ruling has now been issued.
"Kang's case is relatively better," he said, pointing out that Kim Byung-kee, a lawmaker close to President Lee Jae-myung whose alleged nomination bribery surfaced late last year, "has not even been indicted after nearly a year."
Chung also stressed that police should immediately open an investigation into allegations that members of the Shincheonji religious group joined the Democratic Party en masse. "The Min Joong-ki special counsel and the joint prosecution-police investigation unit said twice from August last year that they were investigating allegations of religious groups collectively joining the People Power Party, and even attempted a search and seizure of our party's membership roster," he said. "Police should wrap up the investigation into lawmaker Kim Byung-kee as soon as possible and immediately launch a compulsory investigation into the Shincheonji mass enrollment in the Democratic Party."
Chung declared that his party would push to expel both Kang, now an independent, and Kim of the Democratic Party facing nomination bribery allegations, from the National Assembly. "We will push to expel the abuse-and-bribery duo of Kim and Kang from their seats," he said, urging the Democratic Party to cooperate.