hankyoreh

Oct. 23. (by Lee Jeong-woo

By Cho Hye-jeong, staff reporter

Moon Jae-in called on President Park Geun-hye to respond and take responsibility for the “unfairness of last December’s presidential election and the crisis of democracy we are now facing.”

Moon, a Democratic Party (DP) lawmaker, was the DP presidential candidate in last December’s election, which Park won. He was speaking on Oct. 23 in response to revelations of election interference by the National Intelligence Service (NIS), Ministry of National Defense, and Ministry of Patriots’ and Veterans‘ Affairs, as well as allegations of pressure from the prosecution leadership to scale back the investigation into those allegations.

That afternoon, Moon released a statement titled, “Sternly Urging a Decision from President Park.”

“Even justifiable calls from the public and opposition to find the truth about the NIS’s election interference and reform the organization are being met with browbeating as a ‘refusal to accept the election outcome,’” Moon said.

Moon called on Park, who has kept quiet about the ongoing scandal, to take decisive action.

“The truth must come to light, and we must hold [those responsible] sternly accountable for what is discovered,” he said. “We need to reform the NIS and set our state organizations right so that this sort of thing never happens again.”

Moon’s statement came only two weeks after a previous statement released on Oct. 9 in which Moon urged the prosecutors to stop meddling in politics and focus on their investigation.

Moon’s second statement appears to have been motivated by a decision that he could not just stand by and observe disturbing developments.

The prosecutors’ investigation faces the risk of collapsing from outside pressure despite increasing evidence that state institutions systematically interfered in last December’s presidential election, and the opposition party’s calls to reveal the truth are misrepresented as a refusal to accept the results of the election.

Yoon Seok-yeol, the chief prosecutor who had been in charge of the probe into charges that the National Intelligence Service interfered in the election, was relieved of his duties amid reports of outside pressure.

Following these developments, people close to Moon wrestled with what stance the lawmaker should adopt on the issue. Ultimately, they decided that he should weigh in on the issue, sources say.

After releasing the statement, Moon met with reporters before the parliamentary audit at the Strategy and Finance Committee.

“I’m not sure why they keep saying that we refuse to accept the election results. I’m not sure why they try to keep the Korean people and the opposition party from making their voices heard,” said Moon.

“It’s an undeniable fact that last year’s presidential election was unfair, and it’s also the simple truth that Park benefited from this, whether she was aware of it or not. Park needs to face the facts and get serious about resolving these issues.”

The remarks were directly aimed at Park, who has remained stubbornly silent about these problems while portraying objections about the unfairness of the election as a refusal to accept the election results.

Inside the Democratic Party, opinions were mixed about Moon’s statement.

“As a candidate in the presidential election, it was time for Moon to say something,” said Democratic Party lawmaker Park Jie-won. “Moon said that we are not denying the election results but rather calling for the perpetrators to be punished and for the system to be reformed. His comments adhered strictly to the party line. Since the Saenuri Party keeps claiming that we are rejecting the election results, Moon flexed his political muscle by plainly stating that that is not the case.”

“By calling on Park to clean up her mess, Moon showed that he really means to address this issue head on,” one first term lawmaker said on condition of anonymity.

Nevertheless, other party members expressed their concern that Moon’s comments might serve to buttress claims made by the ruling party and conservatives that the opposition party is rejecting the election results, since Moon was himself the losing candidate.

“As a candidate in the presidential election, Moon has symbolic importance,” one senior party official said. “If he gets involved, the Saenuri Party will work even harder to make its case that we are denying the election outcome. This could be a real burden on the party.”

The official expressed regret at the statement. “I kind of feel like Moon was too hasty on this one”

“The party has already chosen a direction and is acting accordingly,” said Woo Won-shik, member of the DP’s supreme council. “It doesn’t look good for our candidate in the presidential election to get personally involved and start talking about things.”

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