Lee Yong-cheol nominated as justice minister; opposition: “The completion of Lee’s jailbreak project”

[Financial News] After President Lee Jae Myung nominated Defense Acquisition Program Administration Commissioner Lee Yong-cheol as a candidate for justice minister, the People Power Party criticized the move, claiming he belonged to the “Gyeonggi-Seongnam line” and calling it “the completion of Lee Jae Myung’s jailbreak project.”
Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok said as much in a social media post on the 6th, writing, “After all the twists and turns, the justice minister pick is from the ‘Gyeongseong (Gyeonggi-Seongnam) line.’” Lee served on the transition committee after Lee Jae Myung was elected Seongnam mayor and later served as CEO of the Seongnam Industry Promotion Foundation. The opposition considers him a “hidden Daejang-dong figure,” citing his service on the executive recommendation committee and the high score he gave Dong-gyu Yu when Yu was appointed planning chief of the Seongnam City Facilities Management Corporation in 2010.
Jang said, “Nominee Lee Yong-cheol is the ‘hidden architect’ of Daejang-dong. He will take on the ‘behind-the-scenes design’ of dropping the charges,” and asked, “Isn’t Lee Yong-cheol the complete package of ‘vested interests in dropping the charges’ and ‘ties to the Gyeongseong line’?”
He continued, “They even forced through the ‘Special Prosecutor Act for Dismissal of Prosecutions.’ This is the completion of the ‘Lee Jae Myung jailbreak project.’ South Korea is bordered by sea on three sides, with North Korea to the north. An ‘escaped convict’ will inevitably be caught. It will only mean a longer prison term,” he stressed.
Floor leader Jeong Jeom-sig focused on Lee’s work history at Saegil Law Firm. He said, “Saegil is a law firm based in Seongnam City, where President Lee Jae Myung previously served as the firm's representative attorney before being elected Seongnam mayor. Lawyer Lee Sang-ho, who was appointed chairman of the Government Legal Service Corporation this June, is also a Saegil alumnus, as is nominee Lee Yong-cheol, and they were in the same class at the Judicial Research and Training Institute. Chairman Lee Sang-ho previously handled the case involving the illegal receipt of political funds by Kim Yong, one of President Lee Jae Myung’s closest aides, and represented Kim Yong.”
He added, “Lee appears to be a key figure in the Seongnam-line network of Saegil connections, which has had a very deep and long-standing relationship with President Lee Jae Myung,” and stressed, “Are the Seongnam-line figures the true insiders in the Lee Jae Myung administration after all? Or, after all the twists and turns, is the Seongnam line the only group that can be trusted to handle dropping the charges?”
Floor leader Jeong added, “The shadows of Kim Hyun-ji, Jung Jin-sang, Kim Yong, and the Seongnam line’s unofficial network loom large over the Lee Jae Myung administration as a whole. The subject of public scrutiny should not be nominee Lee Yong-cheol personally, but the entire Seongnam line hidden behind the scenes.”
People Power Party lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo criticized the nomination on social media, saying, “President Lee has gone so far as to put someone implicated in Daejang-dong in a ministerial post so that the charges against himself can be dropped. If someone like this becomes justice minister, the Ministry of Justice will be reduced to a Ministry for Dropping Charges.”
People Power Party lawmaker Joo Jin-woo said, “Justice minister nominee Lee Yong-cheol has no expertise whatsoever in legal administration or crime prevention,” and announced, “This is war. We must defend liberal democracy and the rule of law. I’m beginning the vetting process.”

[email protected] Lee Hae-ram Reporter