Chung Jeom-sik: “Serious Crime Investigation Agency chief’s attendance at State Council meeting is grounds for impeaching President Lee”

[Financial News] People Power Party floor leader Chung Jeom-sik said on the 23rd that the attendance of Kim Ji-hoon, head of the Serious Crime Investigation Agency (SCIA), at a State Council meeting constituted grounds for impeaching the president. He claimed that President Lee Jae Myung had forced the head of an investigative agency to attend with the intention of influencing his own trial.
At a parliamentary audit strategy meeting held at the National Assembly that day, Chung said, “Forcing the SCIA chief to attend a State Council meeting means openly and routinely using it to pressure state agencies.”
Earlier, on the 22nd, President Lee said, “The president’s direction and supervision of state affairs are both a power and a responsibility,” adding, “Giving up direction and supervision of the SCIA is a violation of the Constitution and the Government Organization Act, grounds for impeachment, and a crime punishable as dereliction of duty.”
In response, Chung rhetorically asked, “If President Lee’s argument is right, should all previous presidents who did not have heads of investigative agencies attend State Council meetings have been impeached?”
He continued, “The president can convey matters related to state affairs through the relevant ministers. Despite having lawful means of direction and supervision, there is another purpose in trying to force the heads of the SCIA and the Public Prosecution Office to attend State Council meetings,” claiming, “It is a move to influence his own trial, directly or indirectly.”
Chung said, “For more than 500 days since taking office, President Lee has consistently been bent on a political jailbreak to make his five trials disappear,” adding, “He piles one sin on top of another to cover up his own sins. The tower of sins will eventually come crashing down on him.”
Meanwhile, the People Power Party urged the Democratic Party of Korea to “make a wise choice, even now, about whether to protect the four or save the Democratic Party,” after the party’s opposition blocked the selection as witnesses for next week’s Blue House audit of Kim Hyun-ji, chief of the Blue House’s First Annex Office; Jung Jin-sang, former head of the political affairs coordination office for the Democratic Party leader; Kang Hoon-sik, former Blue House chief of staff; and Kim Yong-beom, former Blue House policy chief.
Chung emphasized, “If Mao Zedong had the Gang of Four beside him during the Cultural Revolution, President Lee has a powerful quartet at his side, wielding real power and driving various personnel and policy disasters,” adding, “The ruling party’s steadfast refusal to select witnesses is tantamount to an admission of the various allegations surrounding the Lee Jae Myung administration, including abuses of appointment power by the Seongnam-Gyeonggi faction and the hasty introduction of single-stock leveraged ETFs.”

[email protected] Lee Hae-ram Reporter