hankyoreh

lawmaker for the Democratic Party

By Cho Hye-jeong, staff reporter

Moon Jae-in, lawmaker for the Democratic Party, responded to South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s suggestion that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) should “reform itself” on July 10. “Park didn’t make a single reference to the fact that the NIS’s interference in the election and its illegal leaking of the transcript [of the inter-Korean summit in 2007] resulted in an extremely unfair election, or the fact that it was Park who benefited from and even took advantage of this,” Moon tweeted. Moon’s criticism was based on the argument that Park was the beneficiary of the NIS’s tampering with the election.

Moon attended the steering committee of the Busan branch of the Democratic Party on the morning of July 9. “Yesterday, Park ended her long silence to share her thoughts on this issue,” Moon said. “What she said was really disappointing and troubling.”

“Nam Jae-joon, current director of the National Intelligence Service, tried to distract people’s attention from the election interference scandal through the unlawful disclosure of the summit transcript, and yet he continues to counter claims about election interference by saying that the NIS did nothing wrong,” Moon said. “By asking Nam to prepare the reform measures himself, Park shows that she has no intention of actually reforming the NIS.”

“Moon did the right thing by addressing Park, since she tried to pretend that she is unconnected with the NIS affair, and declaring that she was the one who benefited,” lawmaker Han Jae-son said in an assessment of Moon’s remarks.

However, others in the party are more critical, arguing that it was essentially Moon who pushed for a reading of the transcript of the 2007 inter-Korean summit at the National Assembly, and that attention was diverted from allegations about NIS election interference as a result. Certain figures are also concerned that, since Moon was Park’s opponent in the last presidential election, his remarks could possibly be taken as an attempt to avoid recognizing his loss in the election.

But a spokesperson for Moon dismissed these concerns. “All Moon did was criticize the fact that Park sounded as if she expected the NIS to reform itself,” the spokesperson said. “As he told reporters when he went hiking with them last month, Moon sincerely hopes that Park’s time in office will be a success.”

“Anyway, there is no procedural way to hold Park responsible,” the spokesperson noted.

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