Lee Jun-seok says life sentence for Yoon is "a fitting verdict" and warns, "Politics that rallies around conspiracy theories must end"

According to Financial News, Lee Jun-seok, leader of the Reform Party, commented on the life sentence handed down in the first trial to former President Yoon Suk-yeol on charges of leading an insurrection. Lee stated, "In a democratic republic, those in power who treat the sovereign people as their enemy can never be forgiven," adding, "This verdict is heavy, but it is fitting." He also argued that conservative politics must break with the so‐called "Yoon‐again" faction and said the conservative camp needs to be rebuilt.
Posting on social media the same day, Lee wrote, "Today, the judiciary has delivered its judgment on the illegal Dec. 3 martial law, which left a deep scar on the constitutional history of the Republic of Korea." He continued, "The court has handed down a heavy sentence to the person who, under the title of president, trampled on the Constitution and turned the blade of power granted by the people against those very people."
Lee went on, "What we truly need to confront today lies beyond the written judgment," adding, "The crisis of the conservatives is not about a president who has gone to prison. It is about those who still speak in that president’s language."
He continued, "Even at this very moment, there are forces that use the name Yoon Suk-yeol as a shield to pursue political gain," and pointed out, "There are people who became ministers under his halo and enjoyed power while clinging to his influence."
Lee said, "Now they try to mislead the public as if they could become different people just by putting a single beauty mark under their eye and pretending they were never like that." He added, "The backs that once bent 90 degrees in the snow turned 180 degrees in no time. No one would be proud of such petty agility. Why stop there—could they not spin a full 360 degrees?"
He argued, "This ruling means only one thing for the conservative camp," saying, "We must start over with empty hands, in a humble and modest way." He added, "The one‐shot, get‐rich‐quick style of politics that boasted of sending opponents to prison as if that were an achievement, and the political lineage that fed off prosecutorial power, must now come to an end."
Lee stressed, "The Reform Party will quietly do its part to build a new political order centered on liberalism and a priority for science and technology in place of that old order." He added, "Politics that rallies around conspiracy theories and tries to prove its existence only as an anti‐thesis will never open a new path for South Korea."
He continued, "I do not want to see the conservatives collapse. In a country without a healthy conservative camp, a healthy progressive camp cannot stand, and in a political arena where healthy competition has disappeared, the people are always the losers." He said, "What the Reform Party seeks to do is to surgically remove the specter of prosecutor‐centered, one‐shot opportunism that briefly took hold in the conservative camp, and to quietly pave the way for conservatives to once again stand as a trusted option for the people."
Lee concluded, "Cheering for the downfall of one person is not politics. Politics is about creating an order in which the errors of an era are not repeated." He pledged, "In the face of this ruling, the Reform Party steels itself with an even more solemn mindset. With the determination to work humbly so that politics in South Korea can change, we will walk a path that we need not be ashamed of before the people."
haeram@fnnews.com Lee Haeram Reporter