People Power Party: “Lim Gwang-hyun’s appointment as chief of staff is a ‘family business’ to seize control of the judiciary”... Calls for withdrawal

[Financial News] On the 15th, the People Power Party called Lim Gwang-hyun’s appointment as the new presidential chief of staff a “family business to seize control of the judiciary” and urged that it be withdrawn. The party escalated its criticism, raising suspicions of a “payback appointment,” citing, among other things, that Lim’s brother-in-law had been a lawyer for President Lee Jae-myung in a criminal case.
That day, People Power Party floor leader Chung Jeom-sik wrote on Facebook that “appointments of spouses and the advancement of couples to senior posts are particularly conspicuous in this administration,” and mentioned Lim and the couple comprising Lim and Lee Gyeong-eun, the consul general in Houston.
Chung also mentioned the couples Oh Young-joon, a Justice of the Constitutional Court of Korea, and senior judge Kim Min-gi, as well as Seo Young-kyo, chair of the National Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee, and Jang Yu-sik, a non-standing member of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission. He claimed, “The three couples have one thing in common: they are in positions closely linked to the withdrawal of indictments in President Lee’s five trials.”
In particular, Chung took issue with the record of Lim’s brother-in-law, lawyer Lee Seung-yeop, who defended the president in the Daejang-dong case, the case involving remittances to North Korea, and cases involving alleged violations of the Public Official Election Act, among others. Chung claimed that it was a “‘family business to seize control of the judiciary,’ closely linked through President Lee’s trials, the Woori Law Research Society and Minbyun,” and said, “President Lee’s aim in backing this would be to have his own indictments withdrawn.”
The party’s spokespeople also called for the appointment to be withdrawn. In a statement, senior deputy floor spokesperson Choi Su-jin criticized the appointment, saying, “Putting a bureaucrat who has spent his entire career in the tax field in an overarching role at the Blue House is a declaration that it will be turned into a personal fiefdom, staffed with figureheads from the Seongnam-Gyeonggi network,” and called it “the ugly truth behind a payback appointment for the Daejang-dong family.”
Senior deputy floor spokesperson Choi also pointed out that Lim’s spouse, Consul General Lee, was appointed without diplomatic experience. He said, “The judiciary, diplomacy and investigative agencies have been taken over, and now even the Blue House has effectively been handed over as spoils to the ‘bulletproof family,’” and urged that the appointment be withdrawn.
Chief spokesperson Choi Bo-yoon also referred to Lim’s background in taxation, claiming, “He went straight from commissioner of the National Tax Service to a key aide’s post at the Blue House. It’s an open declaration of intent to practice ‘crony politics.’”
At the party’s supreme council meeting that day, Supreme Council member Kim Jae-won referred to Lim as “the brother-in-law of a Daejang-dong lawyer” and criticized the appointment, saying, “Our country has become a paradise for the Daejang-dong family.”
Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon also weighed in on the appointment controversy. On Facebook, Han claimed that Lim had strongly sought to become the first National Tax Service commissioner when the Yoon Suk Yeol administration began, and said, “That’s not something to criticize him for.” However, he questioned the appointment’s appropriateness, saying, “Taking the post of chief of staff at the Blue House under the Lee Jae-myung Democratic Party of Korea administration, where ideological vetting is the top criterion for appointments, is another matter.”

[email protected] Kim Kyung-min Reporter