Democratic Party of Korea Under Fire for Spy Claim Among Presidential Staff

The Democratic Party of Korea has come under fire for officially stating at a conference that there is a spy among the presidential staff.

Kim Byung-ju, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, sparked controversy between the ruling and opposition parties by claiming a spy among the presidential staff during a parliamentary audit of the Presidential Office and others held on the 7th.

Kim mentioned the police’s decision not to prosecute the U.S. Ambassador to Korea and the Commander of the U.S. Forces in Korea, who was accused by a civic group in connection with the suspicion of wiretapping and surveillance by U.S. intelligence agencies and made this claim.

He pointed out, “If you look at the police’s decision not to prosecute, the Presidential Office completely denied the suspicion of U.S. wiretapping and surveillance, saying it was done by HUMINT (intelligence activities by humans), not SIGINT (intelligence activities through cutting-edge equipment).”

He continued, “If it was leaked by a person rather than wiretapping, it’s a bigger problem. If the country’s major policies went to another country by a person, it’s spying,” and said, “I think we need to conduct a spy detection operation. There is a spy among those sitting here.”

In response, Cho Tae-yong, the head of the National Security Office, retorted, “The Presidential Office has not submitted a position to the police,” and “It’s not appropriate to say there’s a spy among those sitting here.”

The opposition party also strongly criticized this claim.

Kim Sung-won, a member of the People’s Power party, pointed out, “Did you not cross the line with serious expressions?” and Jeon Ju-hye, a member of the same party, also strongly criticized, “Calling someone a spy is a derogatory remark. It’s very inappropriate to conclude that there is HUMINT in the Presidential Office with one decision not to prosecute and to say there is a spy in the Presidential Office based on a wrong conclusion.”

Meanwhile, the ruling and opposition parties clashed over the direction of the Yoon Suk Yeol government’s national administration and sound fiscal stance at the parliamentary audit held on the same day.

Kang Jun-hyun, a member of the Democratic Party, criticized, “More than half of the people view the president’s performance of national affairs negatively. Isn’t this public sentiment a demand from the people to ‘reform national affairs,’ ‘stop divisive politics,’ ‘stop ideological politics’? For the past year and a half, there have been personnel, diplomatic, livelihood, and fiscal disasters.”

Hong Ik-pyo, the floor leader of the same party, also criticized the government’s fiscal management stance, saying, “Fiscal soundness improves by securing tax revenue and restructuring expenditure. There are concerns about a vicious cycle of economic recession caused by austerity and deterioration of fiscal soundness because the past tax cut method is used as it is.”

In response to such criticism from the opposition party, the ruling party turned its attention to the leader of the first opposition party and the previous government.

Lee In-sun, a member of the People’s Power party, said, “Lee Jae Myung, the leader of the Democratic Party, has been shouting every day that we can recover the growth rate of 3% with expansionary fiscal policy while criticizing the Yoon Seok Yul government’s sound fiscal stance. The ‘appeal for key currency’ incident, which he said during the presidential candidate debate that there is a high possibility of becoming a key currency country, comes to mind.”

He then targeted the former Moon Jae-in administration, pointing out that “the three-set of a failing country is an expansion of public officials, expansion of welfare, and manipulation of statistics,” and said, “It’s the homework of the Yoon Seok Yul government to prevent such a three-set.”