[News Fighting] Kwak Kyu-taek, "Delayed Lee Jae-myung trial, Democratic Party of Korea is more responsible than prosecution."

[YTN Radio News Fighting Bae Seunghee]
□ Broadcasting: FM 94.5 (07:15 - 09:00)

□ Broadcast date and time: October 8, 2024 (Tue)
□ Host: Attorney Bae Seung-hee
□ Cast: Kwak Kyu-taek, Senior Spokesman for People's Power

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.

[YTN Radio <News Fighting, Bae Seunghee]> Please reveal that it's about the interview.

◆ Attorney Bae Seung-hee (hereinafter referred to as Bae Seung-hee): I'm Bae Seung-hee from News Fighting. We will continue with the third part of the issue interview. The first parliamentary audit of the 22nd National Assembly began yesterday. The Judiciary Committee fought over the trial of Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the ruling and opposition parties. Let's talk with Kwak Kyu-taek, chief spokesman for the People's Power, a member of the National Assembly's Judiciary Committee. Are you here?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek, Senior Spokesman for People's Power (hereinafter referred to as Kwak Gyu-taek): Yes, hello. I'm Kwak Kyu-taek.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: Yesterday's judiciary committee went on for a long time. Aren't you tired?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: It's okay.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: The People's Power pointed out the issue of delay in the trial of Representative Lee Jae-myung. Why is CEO Lee Jae-myung's trial delayed?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: The Public Official Election Act and the perjury teacher case have decided and are scheduled to be sentenced in November. In the case of the Public Official Election Act, it was originally stipulated that the first, second, and third trials would be completed for a year. However, since the first trial was indicted on September 8, 2022, this will be sentenced in November. Then it took more than two years until the first sentence. I think it's the result of deliberately delaying the trial because he's the leader of a large opposition party. On this issue yesterday, the Law and Judiciary Committee also called for a faster trial against the Supreme Court on such a delayed trial. I also pointed out this part. However, the Democratic Party of Korea argued that the prosecution is responsible for the long trial, which was a bit absurd.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: Yes. In fact, the Democratic Party is more responsible for the delay in the trial, and you see the power of the people, right?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: That's right. Now that he denies all charges and disagrees with all evidence, the authors and title holders of the evidence have to come out and testify. So, naturally, there are cases where there are many witnesses, and there are cases where the trial is postponed or not attended under the pretext of political or parliamentary schedules in the middle, so I think it has been brought up to this point for two years.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: But the Democratic Party pointed out that the prosecution itself is unfair. The perjury charges were not subject to investigation, but the investigation was conducted. The Public Official Election Act argues that the prison sentence is excessive. What happened to this yesterday?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: The Democratic Party seems very anxious right now. So, in November, the sentencing dates for both cases have been set, and yesterday, the Judiciary Committee argued that the opposition lawmakers were not guilty of the Democratic Party of Korea leader Lee Jae-myung to the extent that they wondered whether this was the Supreme Court's audit or not. However, the government audit is supposed to be done within the scope of not interfering with the investigation or trial, but it was really bad to see him pleading not guilty to representative Lee Jae-myung, who is in the position of the defendant in a specific case, like yesterday. In addition, according to the Prosecutors' Office Act and the Enforcement Decree on the perjury teacher case, prosecutors can investigate all such cases, so I don't think the argument that the investigation itself is illegal is a little wrong.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: He's also a lawyer. Isn't it two years now for this violation of the Public Official Election Act? Is there a possibility that this will lead to imprisonment in the judgment?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: The prosecution has now sentenced him to two years for violating the Public Official Election Act. The perjury teacher was sentenced to three years in prison, but the Democratic Party and its supporters argue that the sentence is excessive. However, if you look at the sentencing standards prepared by the Supreme Court, it seems that all of those two- and three-year sentences are included within the sentencing standards. In particular, violations of the Public Official Election Act are the dissemination of false information through TV discussions and press conferences watched by the entire nation in the presidential election, so if it is a crime, it should be punished strictly.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: Yes, and isn't representative Lee Cho Kuk also waiting for the Supreme Court's ruling?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: Yes, that's right.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: In this regard, Member Hwang Un-ha is likely to be remanded. The Supreme Court should overturn the ruling, saying that disqualification from running for office is excessive judicial power. I made this argument.

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: I think it's the wish of the Cho Kuk Innovation Party. Representative Hwang Un-ha himself is also about to be sentenced to the second trial of the appeals court this November. Didn't you get convicted in the first trial? And representative Cho Kuk has also been sentenced to prison in the first and second trials. Since the court was sentenced to the second trial of the first trial on the belief that he was guilty, the Supreme Court cannot change the two-year prison sentence anyway, but it is believed that he was convicted after sufficient legal judgment in the first and second trials.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: Yes. But in the case of representative Cho Kuk, he is imprisoned in the first trial and in the second trial, but he was not arrested in court, right? Did this become a question during the parliamentary audit?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: Yes, of course, it was pointed out. Unfortunately, there are many cases where ordinary people are arrested in court if they are sentenced to prison in the first and second trials. And since he denied his charges during the court trial, it is a common case to arrest him in court from the first trial because there is a fear of destroying evidence. However, the first and second trials have been sentenced to prison, but they are not detained, and the Supreme Court trial is delaying the final ruling, so naturally, the people have no choice but to question why representative Cho Kuk is walking even after being sentenced to prison. Yesterday, there was a point like that. In the future, we will continue to point out such issues through parliamentary inspection such as the Constitutional Court, the Ministry of Justice, and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: If CEO Lee Jae-myung is sentenced to prison, I think he will be arrested in court this time. What do you think of it because there was criticism of the parliamentary audit, not like representative Cho Kuk?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: There has not been a sentence yet, so he should be arrested in court. I think it's a little too early to even say this. I think the court will make a strict judgment.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: Okay. I asked you on the condition of imprisonment. The People's Power has filed a complaint with the police against Lee Jae-myung, former Deputy Governor Lee Hwa-young, and former Chairman Kim Sung-tae. It is a position that the crime was revealed through the transcript of the former lieutenant governor Lee, which was recently released at the prosecutor's impeachment hearing. How can this be explained?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: At the prosecutor's impeachment hearing last week, former Lieutenant Governor Lee Hwa-young, of course, was sentenced to nine and a half years in the first trial. Again, he came to the prosecutor's impeachment hearing, and the claims he had made so far were unfair, and the prosecutor cajoled him, and he held a drinking party to induce a statement. These absurd claims were made in the same way in the National Assembly. On top of that, opposition lawmakers also responded and did so as if former Deputy Governor Lee Hwa-young's statements were true. In the process, I think the lawyer probably recorded the conversation that former Lieutenant Governor Lee Hwa-young had with his lawyer. But among the contents, there is this saying. We managed an organization called Governor Lee Jae-myung's Square. It means that through that organization called Gwangjang, he helped Governor Lee Jae-myung with some kind of election. At that time, representative Lee Hae-chan and members of the Democratic Party of Korea were involved a lot, and the cost of it was also made into Chairman Kim Sung-tae.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: I'm saying I paid for it.

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: That's right. So, since this is a violation of the law, such as a violation of the Political Fund Act, of course, an investigation should be conducted. So yesterday, the members of the Korean People's Power Judiciary Committee filed a complaint with the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: I see. I see. I'd like to keep asking you some legal questions. Didn't Moon Da-hye, the daughter of former President Moon, drink and drive? In addition to drunk driving, there are many suspicions about illegal parking and traffic laws. How did you see this drunk driving itself?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: Of course, drunk driving itself is a crime that the whole people really envy. This can lead to a major accident, so I shouldn't be really careful, but the fact that the former president's daughter drinks until late and drives under the influence of alcohol without any hesitation made me think about what kind of compliance is like. This person has been under investigation for a while now. So, President Moon Jae In's former son-in-law, Lee Sang-jik, a former lawmaker who was a major shareholder of Thai Star Jet, went to the chairman of the board of directors of the Central Industrial Complex.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: That's right.

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: Then it's a situation where you really have to self-reflect, but it's a behavior that I really don't understand that you drank until this late and drove under the influence.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: By the way, is former President Moon Jae In Lee Yoon Chang-ho corporation in 2018? Didn't you say it was a murder in relation to drunk driving?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: That's right. Yes, former President Moon Jae In himself said that, but I think the management of this daughter and Moon Da-hye's own compliance consciousness were not at this level. What is more absurd is that the prosecution harassed former President Moon Jae In's supporters through an investigation into the case of drunk driving. He said he gave this absurd reaction again. However, I think it has been confirmed again that former President Moon Jae In's supporters showed unconditional support without a sense of compliance.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: Yes, I'm not currently in office, but as a former president, do you think former President Moon Jae In should apologize for Moon Da-hye's drunk driving behavior?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: Of course, President Moon Jae In should apologize, and he should apologize. However, former President Moon Jae In and his family members did not apologize no matter how much they were found to be wrong. I think it is appropriate to apologize to the people just by the fact that it has been revealed so far.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: Yes. We've talked about the apology, and I'll ask you about the news of the audit. It seems that the Democratic Party of Korea intensively raised suspicions about Kim Gun-hee's involvement in the nomination yesterday. The head of the court administration said, "We have to look at the context, but it is not appropriate." How did you hear this?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: Yes. Yesterday, I didn't ask the head of the Supreme Court's court administration about Kim Gun-hee's intervention in the nomination or the recent media. Referring to a case, I asked him what he thought if he recommended A to give up running and received a public office later. So, he answered that it was not appropriate for the head of the court administration. But suddenly, the person named Gap and the person named A changed their story in this way that it was Myung Tae-kyun and Kim Gun-hee, and the head of the court administration also said it was an inappropriate act. So, I think it's a pity that the appearance of such questions and answers at the scene of the parliamentary inspection is distorted incorrectly in the media.

◆Bae Seung-hee: A person named Myung Tae-kyun said that he/she would be investigated in a month and that President Yoon Suk Yeol would step down and be impeached in a month. Can he/she handle it? How did you see this?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: I understand that the person named Myung Tae-kyun is now being investigated because of his financial relationship with former lawmaker Kim Young-sun. I also understand that there was a recent raid. When they are also investigated, suspects who are investigated often talk like that and make the mistake of not having any problems or that they are not punished. As you'll see, I think it'll probably be punished after the investigation.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: Yes. He also claimed that he visited the home of President Yoon and his wife and recommended Choi Jae-hyung, former chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection, as the first prime minister. How did you see this?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: So in this election phase, there are people who show off their abilities or exaggerate some of them and show off their abilities in that way. It's commonly referred to as the broker of the election. However, former lawmaker Choi Jae-hyung said that there was no such fact, and I think it will be confirmed through future investigations whether he had that much ability.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: You're saying it's an exaggeration. You think it might be false. Another problem of people's power is about former administrator Kim Dae-nam. The story of the owner of the attack against CEO Han Dong-hoon continues to come out. CEO Han Dong-hoon also requested the party's audit committee to investigate this. Many people are also saying that CEO Han Dong-hoon is unnecessarily raising controversy. Because former administrator Kim Dae-nam left the party again, right?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: I think it's a little wrong to point out that it unnecessarily raises controversy. It's hard to say that it's the media that Kim Dae-nam contacted, but isn't that the YouTube media the sound of Seoul? This is typically a media that is a little pro-opposition and unfavorable to the people's power in all political cases, but trying to influence the results of the party's national convention by contacting and colluding with such media is an act that should not be done as a party member. In that regard, it seems that it is right to confirm the facts even if they left the party firmly to prevent similar cases in the future. Accordingly, I think that it will be possible to ban reinstatement of the person in the future and take measures against it if there are people involved.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: Yes, representative Han Dong-hoon continued a luncheon with the chairman of the party cooperation committee outside the assembly following a dinner with a close-knit lawmaker. Han Dong-hoon will also act in response to the Kim Gun-hee controversy when the time comes. It is said that he said this. What else should I interpret this in?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: I will act when the time comes. I think that's a little misrepresented. And the part where the dinner and luncheon are now is that there are no candidates for the highest committee, who were with CEO Han Dong-hoon at the last national convention, and there are no candidates for the highest committee for young people. I haven't had a meeting with them yet. That's what they said. Because of the busy schedule, it was now a dinner that we decided to have a meal like this again. It is also said to be a place that has been talked about for a long time. And there is a bit of a delay with the chairmen of the party's cooperation committee, but I should have prepared a seat as the party leader earlier. In the case of yesterday, it was also carried out like the training of the chairmen of the outside party cooperation committee. So, I think that some kind of political influence or interpretation of those parts is a little out of line.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: Is that so? That's what I'm thinking. Rather, many politicians evaluate Han Dong-hoon as saying that he now stands alone and has started his own politics. There is also an interpretation that it is starting to gather power in earnest, what do you think?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: As the party leader, of course, I am in a position to lead the entire party. Until now, he has been holding luncheon meetings with three-term and four-term lawmakers and continuing to communicate. So there will be more seats in the future. I don't think it's right to drive him too much into political influence.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: I see. There is no conflict with the president. Are you talking about this?

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: Yes, that's right.

◆ Bae Seung-hee: Okay. Thank you for the interview even though you are busy. This has been Kwak Kyu-taek, the chief spokesman for the People's Power. Thank you.

◇Kwak Gyu-taek: Yes, thank you.