[News UP] Acting President Han's 'impeachment' vote today...Is it going to be a series of impeachment?

■ Host: Cho Jin-hyuk Anchor
■ Starring: Kim Min-soo, former spokesman for the People's Power, Kang Sung-pil, deputy spokesperson of the Democratic Party,

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN News UP] when quoting.

[Anchor]
12.3 The emergency martial law case will be brought to the Constitutional Court's bench for the first time today. The first hearing preparation date for the impeachment trial of President Yoon will be held at 2 p.m. today. Let's take a closer look at the relevant content. Kim Min-soo, former spokesman for the People's Power, and Kang Sung-pil, deputy spokesperson of the Democratic Party, are here. Please come in. First of all, the data requested by the Constitutional Court were not submitted by the president, and the appointment of a lawyer was not submitted. Today's hearing preparation date, President Yoon Suk Yeol's side is expected to not attend. How do you view it?

[Kim Minsoo]
If you say you're not ready, there's a good chance you won't be present. As you all know this is a preparatory date, isn't it a place where the parties gather to organize issues and coordinate future proceedings before the pleading begins in earnest? However, the president of Yoon Suk Yeol is not obligated to attend in person. The lawyer can attend instead, but if you say you are not ready, if one of them is absent, it will not proceed. So this will require more preparation time for the judges to judge. If it is judged that more preparation procedures are needed, I think we will set up another preparation date.

[Anchor]
The Constitutional Court is in a position to proceed with the schedule, so what do you think about the president's attendance?

[Kang Sungpil]
As it is known, the president is not likely to attend because the president is consistent with the stage response without any response. Unfortunately, Constitutional Judge Kim Hyung-doo was recently injured by his father. Nevertheless, because this impeachment trial is so important and has public interest, it broke the hearts of the people that they went to work the next day despite their father's injury. Nevertheless, the president received a flower basket for his 64th birthday and even watched a Christmas service. It is suspected that the president does not have the will to protect the constitution when he does everything he can and does not even say anything about these impeachment proceedings. These actions will have a very, very negative impact on the outcome of the impeachment trial later on, which was found in the case of former President Park Geun Hye.

[Kim Minsoo]
The process for the preparation date has not been given more than 15 days, but rather than seeing it as a trial by President Yoon Suk Yeol, the impeachment trial itself will have a significant impact on the people now and the future of the Republic of Korea. Of course, I would like to reiterate the things that require sufficient thorough preparation time for this important trial.

[Kang Sungpil]
However, I fully understand such defense rights, but if so, the president should come out confidently and express his opinion. I don't think it's appropriate to be consistent like this just with the stage.

[Anchor]
First of all, the National Assembly will apply for commanders such as former Minister Kim Yong-hyun as witnesses in the impeachment trial. Minister Kim Yong-hyun's press conference yesterday drew attention, but Kim himself drafted the decree. And the president emphasized that he took measures to remove the public curfew. Is he saying that he is responsible for everything now?

[Kim Minsoo]
Rather than saying that I am responsible for it and that you are, I did martial law if I said only what is clearly true and what is true now. And it's true that martial law was lifted. However, the Democratic Party of Korea is trying to combine this martial law act with civil war and foreign exchange. Then, in principle, it is impossible to investigate the president unless it is a civil war or foreign exchange. In this case, it is judged that the former defense minister clearly explains that the purpose of martial law was not the purpose of civil war for the president.

[Anchor]
I'm sorry to interrupt you. The government and the ruling party have decided to hold a Democratic Party government council meeting to revitalize the domestic economy. Various government-wide support measures are expected to be discussed along with ways to push for rapid budget execution centered on domestic people's livelihood projects. Let's go to the scene.

[Kwon Seongdong / Acting People's Power Party leader]
I'm Kwon Sung-dong, the acting leader of the party. Jungkook is very dizzy these days. It is very unfortunate and very sorry to the people that politics, which should give stability and hope to the people, is fueling confusion in state affairs.

It is an unprecedented crisis, but there should be no shaking in state affairs. At times like this, public officials should be at the center.

I hope that the Deputy Prime Minister, Ministers, and public officials here will show active leadership so that they can give trust and stability to the people and the market in their respective positions.

In addition to recent domestic political instability, external economic uncertainty has also been growing. In this situation, bold and prompt policy implementation is needed to revitalize the domestic economy and stabilize people's livelihoods as soon as possible. In particular, next year's budget execution should focus financial resources on economic stability for ordinary people with drastic early execution that exceeds market expectations.

The tourism industry is key to boosting domestic consumption. I think it is necessary to conduct an aggressive travel campaign to boost domestic tourism for our people and foreigners' visit to Korea.

In addition, the chairman of the Small Business Association, the chairman of the Supermarket Cooperative Association, and the chairman of the National Merchants Association were also present.Ma's recent political turmoil has dampened consumer sentiment, adding to the pain of self-employed and small business owners.

It is also true that the government and the ruling party have implemented various policies for self-employed and small business owners, but they are not meeting your expectations. In the future, the government and the ruling party promise to become an original team and make it a top national task to revive self-employed and small business owners along with rapid political stability.

It's time to find some stability. Restoring stability in state affairs and people's livelihoods should be the first task in our politics. I also appeal to the opposition. The impeachment of the acting president, which aggravates the economic slowdown in the domestic economy and financial market instability, should be withdrawn now. The ruling and opposition parties should once again join forces to stabilize state affairs. The power of the people will open the door to all dialogue and negotiations to stabilize people's livelihoods. Thank you.

[Anchor]
Kwon Sung-dong, floor leader of the People's Power Party, heard all the remarks at the Democratic Party and Government Council. Briefly summarized, bold and prompt policy implementation is needed to stabilize people's livelihoods. And he said that there is an urgent need for measures to resolve the contraction of consumer sentiment. After that, for this stability, he demanded that the impeachment of acting Han Deok-soo be withdrawn even now. I'm curious how you both liked it. Could you tell us first, deputy spokesperson?

[Kang Sungpil]
In order to stabilize people's livelihoods, withdraw the impeachment of Acting President Han Deok-soo. I think this is far from stabilizing people's livelihoods. Acting President Han Deok-soo is not acting as an acting president, but rather as I said earlier, we have no choice but to impeach him because there is clear evidence related to the impeachment anyway, and eliminating this uncertainty will help stabilize the state affairs. And I will say that the Democratic Party of Korea will actively cooperate to save people's livelihoods as a majority party in the National Assembly anyway.

[Anchor]
How did you like it?

[Kim Minsoo]
Looking at the past behavior of the Democratic Party of Korea, the prosecution, which investigated Representative Lee Jae-myung, the chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, and the Board of Audit and Inspection, which audited the former administration of Moon Jae In, have been indiscriminately impeached until now. This seems to be the intention to paralyze the state administration, but this case is even worse. For example, aren't you acting as an acting president with the consent of the Democratic Party to act as an acting president? Since the impeachment system itself is used so often, I think it's just a system that the Democratic Party can use if they don't like it. Clearly, the Constitution must have unconstitutional or illegal acts that can violate the constitutional order. However, the abuse of impeachment, which does not even meet these substantive requirements and has no procedural justification, shows that the Democratic Party of Korea does not care about people's livelihoods or cares about them, which is why Kwon Sung-dong is warning the Democratic Party of Korea. I think they are asking us to stop the unconstitutional and illegal impeachment proceedings now so that the field of people's livelihood can be stabilized.

[Anchor]
I'll give you the breaking news right away. This morning, lawyer Bae Bo-yoon, who is known to be participating as a lawyer for President Yoon Suk Yeol, told President Yoon that his representatives will be appointed to the Constitutional Court and will attend the impeachment hearing at 2 p.m. today. We just had a look.Ma seemed highly likely to be absent, but now Yoon Suk Yeol's representatives have appointed him to the Constitutional Court. And he officially informed me that he will attend the hearing preparation date today. How did you see it, spokesperson?

[Kim Minsoo]
As I told you earlier, if I say I'm not prepared enough, I won't attend, but then I'm somewhat ready for this. And the fact that the lawyers are ready to attend the preparation period and discuss the preliminary arguments like this, and that this information came out now proves that the president wasn't deliberately delaying the time, as the Democratic Party claims.

[Anchor]
The deputy spokesperson, too.

[Kang Sungpil]
It's a relief that President Yoon Suk Yeol said he would form a team of lawyers and attend the hearing. But it's important to attend, but there are two documents that the Constitutional Court asked for. It's proclamation No. 1 at the time of martial law and the minutes of the State Council, which are very important. Because it is possible to infer the situation at the time from the minutes of the Cabinet meeting, and it will be important whether Prime Minister Han Deok-soo expressed his opposition to the emergency martial law or tacitly agreed at the time.

[Anchor]
For now, the agents have decided to attend, so I think we can evaluate that all formal requirements are in place today. Let's move on to the question again. Just a moment ago, Spokesman Kim said about former Minister Kim Yong-hyun's press conference yesterday that he was at the level of correcting the facts. Then, I'm curious about your opinion on yesterday's press conference.

[Kang Sungpil]
First of all, there were a lot of things to say. In any case, he reported to acting authority Han Deok-soo in advance. Therefore, it was a form of a cabinet meeting and suggestion to the president. In addition, there were circumstances such as the fact that he wrote the decree himself and the president deleted it to some extent, but the most important content I heard was the intention to cut off the structure that eventually led to the head of the civil war, important mission workers, and simple participants. I think that's where the focus is. But what's questionable is that other important participants, other than President Yoon Suk Yeol, are protected. But President Yoon Suk Yeol is still in an advantageous position to destroy and kiss the evidence freely. Therefore, it seems that what former Minister Kim Yong-hyun did in an interview with the Dong-A Ilbo before he was arrested and arrested for the first time has changed a little. The opposition party has no choice but to suspect that such nuance has changed as the lawyers have been replaced. Anyway, what Minister Kim Yong-hyun added was that he justified the emergency martial law as a high-level political act of the president, but I think you know that many jurists and the public cannot agree on it.

[Kim Minsoo]
It is very obvious that the Democratic Party wants to continue to lead the president's martial law practice to the current civil war. Insurrection is a target criminal. But what is the reason why the president should do martial law for the purpose of civil war now? So, I think that the Democratic Party's continued political behavior is a national constitutional scandal if we look at the actions of the early presidential election, which is now paralysing the administration, the legislature, and the judiciary through the various judicial risks that representative Lee Jae-myung has. That's why if the Democratic Party of Korea is showing too unilateral political behavior, and the Constitutional Court's judgment so far goes in, watch it. I would like to add that we will need to stop promoting political propaganda and watch.

[Anchor]
And yesterday, there was a conflict between the claims of former Minister Kim Yong-hyun and the claims of acting authority Han Deok-soo. So, former Minister Kim reported to Prime Minister Han Deok-soo in advance at the time of the emergency martial law, and the lawyer clearly said that former Minister Kim said this. However, the Prime Minister's Office emphasizes that it was not true. How did you like it?

[Kim Minsoo]
It seems to me that they are arguing about the procedural flaws of martial law. It seems that whether this is true or not will eventually be revealed in the current trial process. So now, I'm in those parts as well. There seems to be a procedural flaw. The power of our people also talks about these things. However, it is unreasonable to link it to civil war or foreign exchange just because there is a procedural defect. So these parts need to be clarified, but the Democratic Party is really just appealing without a legal basis. I'd like to say once again that I'm promoting it. I also want to talk about this part. The Democratic Party continues to make procedural and procedural flaws, and all the situations that the Democratic Party has shown in the 21st and 22nd National Assembly are procedural flaws. The same is true of impeachment and special prosecutors now. He is repeating impeachment indefinitely by splitting the session or drawing up agendas, and repeating the infinite special prosecution. And I would also like to say that these are actions that eventually paralyzed the administration.

[Anchor]
How did you like it?

[Kang Sungpil]
However, there are requirements for meeting martial law. If martial law is announced when the requirements of martial law have not been met, it is a procedural deficiency, and the procedural deficiency violates the Constitution and laws. In a little more detail, if we look at the Constitution, the case of civil war should be so confusing that we have to maintain order by putting in a wartime incident, that is, military troops. But on the evening of December 3, it was chaotic. Rather, soldiers came down in helicopters, broke windows, and the order was confused. And in the case of acting Han Deok-soo, anyway, if acting Han Deok-soo really thought the emergency martial law was wrong, he should not have convened a Cabinet meeting. If that happens, it is very likely that the President of Yoon Suk Yeol has not postponed or declared an emergency because the emergency procedures have not been met. However, in this situation, Prime Minister Han Deok-soo convened more cabinet meetings. This can only be seen as sympathetic to the emergency martial law in the eyes of the people and the opposition. Then, as pointed out by the power of the people, the budget cuts that the Democratic Party has made so far and the impeachment of key government figures are unconstitutional or illegal? That's not the case at all. This was carried out by the Democratic Party in a legally established process. In a democratic society, what should I do if I try to reach an agreement in the end, but I can't reach an agreement? It's a majority rule. That's why the Democratic Party is in the majority, so it's done within the legal basis, and Congress checks the government at the level of separation of powers. And the structure of the majority party was created by the people through voting in the last general election. They keep raising suspicions about fraudulent elections because they can't admit it.

[Kim Minsoo]
I want to tell you this part. The Democratic Party continues to talk about martial law as a wartime or incident, but this is clearly stated in Article 2 of the Martial Law. Martial law is allowed even when the social order is extremely disturbed and the performance of administrative and judicial functions is remarkably difficult. If the Democratic Party of Korea has disrupted the social order and paralyzed the functions of administration and justice, this can also be a reason for martial law, and the president makes the judgment on this part. And it is said that through the people's choice in the last general election, President Yoon Suk Yeol is also a president who has been chosen and empowered by many people.

[Kang Sungpil]
I can't help but counter-arguing that it's not a crime of rebellion. If the circumstances in which North Korean agents were used to tie up the NEC's employees with cable ties, cover them with headscarves, and imprison them are true, will you tell me that this is legitimate martial law? And arrest of key politicians. So, beyond the leader of the opposition party and the chairman of the National Assembly, the leader of the ruling party, who had an emotional relationship with him, tried to arrest him, and although it should be confirmed further, there are circumstances in which he tried to kill him. So if these things turn out to be objective investigations, then this would be the exact crime of rebellion.

[Kim Minsoo]
It seems that these remarks by the Democratic Party of Korea are actually spreading false news. So none of it has been proven to be true right now. Now, the Democratic Party of Korea did the same thing at the time of former President Park Geun Hye's impeachment. We also talked about Cheong Wa Dae's Gutpan. I also talked about tablet PCs. And we've talked about all kinds of conspiracies and lost seven hours. In the end, however, it turned out to be all untrue. Now, fake news is being talked about in a form too similar to the time when former President Park Geun Hye was impeached. Now let me be clear that none of these things have been truly judged yet.

[Kang Sungpil]
Then, it is said that all such things as hamburger Bodhisattva have not been confirmed yet, but at least the entire nation saw that the special forces came down by helicopter and broke the window with a gun at the National Assembly headquarters. The Speaker of the National Assembly, who is almost 70 years old, talked to the main gate because he left the proper door and was blocked by police forces. Let me tell you that the whole nation watched this in real time.

[Anchor]
It is spreading to an essential debate, so let's move on to the next topic. War clouds are circulating in the National Assembly today. Acting President Han Deok-soo announced his statement to the public yesterday, saying that he would suspend the appointment of a candidate for constitutional justice. Let's listen to that part.

[Acting President Han Deok-soo: I will suspend the appointment of a constitutional judge until the ruling and opposition parties agree to submit the proposal. If the ruling and opposition parties agree and submit the proposal, we will appoint a constitutional judge immediately. When legal interpretation is mixed and division and conflict are severe, but there is no room to wait for judicial judgment, the agreement between the ruling and opposition parties, the representative of the people, is the last bank to secure democratic legitimacy and lead to national unity. The consistent spirit of our Constitution and law is that the acting president should refrain from exercising his or her own authority, including the appointment of constitutional institutions. ]

[Anchor]
In the end, I will not appoint a constitutional judge. In other words, we've officially stated that we'll hold off. The fact that the ruling and opposition parties' agreement comes first is something that was equally emphasized at the last Cabinet meeting. Spokesperson Kim, how did you hear it?

[Kim Minsoo]
I think the acting authority has made a very careful judgment and announced a principled position. In the case of the Democratic Party of Korea now, acting representative Han Deok-soo will put the appointment on hold. I'll accept it, I've been talking about impeachment even before I expressed my intention. So the Democratic Party's current position is that if they don't listen to us, they will impeach us now. It is judged that I will be irrelevant even if it is seen as an act of national constitution that clearly paralyzes the administration.

[Kang Sungpil]
But acting Han Deok-soo told you to agree. To reach an agreement is to reach an agreement when each other makes concessions on each other's terms when there are conditions, but in the case of the people's power, it is not an agreement because they are unconditionally opposed. And it's already been agreed. It's not even December last year when Choo Kyung-ho, floor leader of the People's Power, and Park Chan-dae, floor leader of the Democratic Party. We already agreed on this in December of this year. So, Cho Han-chang, the nominee for Constitutional Court justice, was not recommended by the Democratic Party, but discussed it from the power of the people, recommended by floor leader Choo Kyung-ho, and went through a confirmation hearing to approve the appointment of the National Assembly. Why do we need to agree on this? And it is said that they have heard various opinions, but in the end, when there is a controversy over legal interpretation in Korea, the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court ultimately conclude. However, the Constitutional Court, which is the party, is also telling the acting president to appoint this, and the Supreme Court is also interpreting the authority. And as a result, the people want it, and if you listen to the public's public opinion before acting Han Deok-soo announces the statement, there seems to be a lot of public opinion that this is why acting Han Deok-soo should be impeached.

[Kim Minsoo]
We also need to check the facts on things like this, but the Hunber Court never asked Han Deok-soo to appoint them. So, if you think these are things that need to be pointed out clearly and you are going to criticize them this much for not appointing a constitutional judge, I would also like to ask why the Democratic Party of Korea has not recommended a constitutional judge for this long time since the last president was elected.

[Anchor]
Let's move on to the impeachment motion. Looking at the contents of the impeachment bill, it was included separately between the period of prime minister and the period of acting president. What does it mean?

[Kang Sungpil]
Actually, I had a lot of worries. When impeaching acting Han Deok-soo, the quorum of decisions is being debated. Therefore, in order to eliminate this debate in the first place, I tried to include only this act of sympathy and tacit assistance in relation to martial law under Prime Minister Han Deok-soo. However, as the National Assembly speaker reviewed it legally, it was determined that there was no legal flaw in impeaching acting Han Deok-soo if there were 151 votes in favor of him, so as Prime Minister Han Deok-soo said earlier, the meeting should not have been convened. And although he did not actively approve it, he implicitly assisted it. And as an acting authority, he has given up his duty to protect the Constitution. I'll tell you briefly because I've told you why you need to impeach me earlier.

[Anchor]
It came naturally as a debate about the quorum of decisions. 151 people or 200 seats. What do you think?

[Kim Minsoo]
Of course, it's 200 seats. So this should not even be controversial now. Because in Korea, there is a law called the Presidential Constitutional Court Act on the Constitutional Court published in 2015 by the authorities on the Constitution. It's kind of a liturgical version of the Constitution. It's an interpretation. So it's clear here that if you wanted to impeach the acting president, you need 200 people. It's stated. Then, it's a booklet that the Constitutional Court judges also refer to. This seems to be a maritime version of the constitution that has been created over three years. However, even though it is clearly stated, I think it can be said that the Democratic Party's interpretation of the current 150 seats is equivalent to the level of constitutional violations. So, it did not further blur the law and order of the Republic of Korea and gave the Democratic Party 180 huge seats, so it did not give them the right to violate the Constitution. I would like to clarify that I did not give the right to arbitrarily interpret the Constitution or the laws of the Republic of Korea.

[Kang Sungpil]
However, I think I only read up to page 653 of the commentary published by the Constitutional Court from the power of the people. However, if you look at the next chapter, page 654, the commentary clearly states that the original job can be impeached, so we, the Democratic Party, went through legal review. So I think it's going to pass with 151 seats in favor and if there's a problem here, the Constitutional Court will eventually decide.

[Anchor]
If I summarize briefly, the Democratic Party should see it as prime minister now. And the power of the people should be seen as an agent. So, you can understand that it is divided into 151 people and 200 people. I think it'll be the last topic. So it is National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik who holds the key now. The chairman of the National Assembly said that the primary judgment can be made now, so what kind of judgment do you think you will make?

[Kim Minsoo]
In the end, the speaker of the National Assembly will think of the Democratic Party's position. So I don't think I'm going to interpret the law as the law and I think I'm going to break the obligations of the speaker. However, I would like to clarify that this will be a decision that will hamper the political progress of National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik in the future. And now, the Democratic Party of Korea is impeaching the president and then the acting president. After this, the deputy prime minister for economic affairs was impeached. If you keep impeaching him, doesn't this really mean that he will completely paralyze the state of affairs? Aren't you telling me not to run the state administration anymore in Korea? These things should also be done according to the procedure, but I would like to reiterate that the Democratic Party of Korea should not violate the Constitution in this way. And one more thing: If the Democratic Party does not clarify the impeachment quorum and insists that the impeachment motion was passed with more than 151 votes, the Constitutional Court will ultimately decide on this matter, as the deputy spokesperson said earlier. How funny is this situation if the Constitutional Court decides that 200 people are right? How chaotic is the Republic of Korea? So, I would also like to say that the Democratic Party should work in a responsible manner on this part.

[Anchor]
Additionally, I'll ask you a question. Joo Jin-woo, a member of the People's Power Party, pointed out now that Chairman Woo has no primary authority to judge when the interpretation of constitutional provisions is mixed. Can you refute that?

[Kang Sungpil]
Why don't you have primary authority? As the speaker of the National Assembly, the task of holding a plenary session of the National Assembly and holding a vote is on the speaker of the National Assembly. If it is passed by the National Assembly, it will be passed to the Constitutional Court, right? And for this situation now, the Democratic Party did not make it, but the President did. If the president hadn't declared a state of emergency, would this have happened? And in the case of acting Hwang Kyo-ahn in 2017, the Constitutional Court chief did not appoint him because it was the president's responsibility, but in the same year, Judge Lee Sun-hye, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, appointed him. And if you look at Article 111, Paragraph 5 of our Constitution, it's clear. The president's recommendation, three for the National Assembly's recommendation, and three for the Supreme Court's recommendation are specified. Therefore, in the case of Chairman Woo Won-sik, I will say that we have fully reviewed these legal grounds.

[Anchor]
I think I can feel the war in the National Assembly from the two of you. Let's stop here. I talked with Kim Min-soo, former spokesman for the People's Power, and Kang Sung-pil, deputy spokesman of the Democratic Party. Thank you both.