(Seoul = News 1) Reporters Park Ki-hyeon and Seo Mi-seon = On the 3rd, the People Power Party warned that it would consider legal action if Park Soo-hyun, chief spokesperson of the Democratic Party of Korea, does not apologize for calling his party’s lawmaker Song Seok-joon into floor leader Song Eon-seok.
Chief Spokesperson Park apologized on Facebook this afternoon and asked for understanding.
The People Power Party’s floor leader’s office pointed out in a notice to reporters on this day, “The fact that the spokesperson of the Communist Party is talking about ‘reporting a crime of coercion’ without even basic fact checking is truly a threat, coercion, and assault on the main opposition party, the People Power Party.”
He then said, “Chief Spokesperson Park must immediately apologize and withdraw his remarks,” adding, “Otherwise, we will consider all legal measures, including threats, false accusations, and spreading false information.”
Senior Spokesperson Park explained on Facebook this morning that the background to changing the law suspending the trial of President Lee Jae-myung to the ‘National Stability Act’ was that “During the National Assembly audit, floor leader Song asked the court, ‘Can President Lee’s trial be resumed?’
He then claimed, “The People Power Party is committing the crime of coercion because it forced them to pass the National Stability Act through threats.”
However, it was Rep. Song Seok-jun who asked a question to this effect during the National Assembly inspection. Senior Spokesperson Park accordingly corrected ‘Floor Leader Song’ to ‘People Power Party National Assembly member’ in the article.
People Power Party Senior Spokesperson Choi Su-jin pointed out, “Is the ruling party’s spokesperson trying to intimidate the main opposition party by talking about violation of the crime of coercion under the criminal law without checking the basic facts?” and “As they focus only on blindly following this president, they are making the basic mistake of confusing the name.”
He added, “Chief Spokesperson Park must withdraw the statement along with an apology for the false information. If there is no immediate action, we will take all possible legal action, including charges of defamation, false accusation, and distribution of false information.”
Chief Spokesperson Park wrote on Facebook this afternoon, “I discovered that I unintentionally misrepresented the remarks of another member of the National Assembly as those made by Floor Leader Song, and corrected it. I apologize. I hope it will be widely understood.”
smith@news1.kr