Chung Jeom-sik: “Shielding the Seongnam-Gyeonggi line will end in the Lee administration’s self-destruction”

[Financial News] Ahead of the House Steering Committee’s audit of the Blue House on the 29th, People Power Party floor leader Chung Jeom-sik spoke out forcefully, saying, “The end of an audit that shields those close to power is the self-destruction of the Lee Jae Myung government.” Kim Hyun-ji, chief of the Blue House First Annex Office, and Jung Jin-sang, former director of the Democratic Party of Korea’s Political Affairs Coordination Office, among others, whom the opposition has identified as part of the “Seongnam-Gyeonggi line,” were not named as witnesses for that day’s audit.
At a Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly that day, floor leader Chung said, “Today’s audit is expected to be nothing short of the DPK’s all-out effort to shield Kim Hyun-ji and Jung Jin-sang,” and made the remarks.
Floor leader Chung said, “The DPK’s strong opposition scuttled the appearance as witnesses of Kim Hyun-ji and Jung Jin-sang, who are known as the most powerful figures in the Lee Jae Myung administration. I wonder just how powerful they are for the DPK to be so unwaveringly committed to an all-out effort to shield them in the audit.”
He continued, “The chief justice of the Supreme Court was subjected to all manner of insults at the audit, but is the chief of the Blue House First Annex Office beyond scrutiny? Is Chief Kim someone above the chief justice and the National Assembly?” He criticized it as “conduct that destroys the separation of powers.”
Floor leader Chung said, “Despite the DPK’s all-out defensive campaign to protect Kim Hyun-ji and Jung Jin-sang, this audit has already laid bare the full extent of the Seongnam-Gyeonggi line’s abuse of its influence over appointments.” He added, “Of the 364 executives appointed to public institutions by the Lee Jae Myung administration over the past year, 74 have ties to either President Lee or the DPK, and 24 of those are classified as part of the Seongnam-Gyeonggi line.”
He went on, “People from the Seongnam-Gyeonggi line—including the president’s chief of staff and spokesperson during his time as Seongnam mayor, the officiant at Chief Kim’s wedding, and former co-heads of a Seongnam civic group in which President Lee and Kim Hyun-ji were active—have been parachuted into public institutions across the board.” He added pointedly, “That is why people say the government’s seonggol (sacred-bone aristocracy) are the Seongnam-Gyeonggi line, its jingol (true-bone aristocracy) is the president’s lawyers’ party, its yukdupum (six-head-rank class) is people from the DPK, and everyone else is an untouchable.”
Floor leader Chung said, “With today’s audit shielding powerful figures at the Blue House, the government and ruling party have given up the chance to explain to the public the allegations of appointment abuses by the Seongnam-Gyeonggi line.” He added, “The more they try to hide the truth through the use of power, the more people will learn it.”

[email protected] Lee Hae-ram Reporter