US has no right to lecture S. Korea on democracy, Democratic Party lawmaker says

Song Young-gil makes sarcastic reference Trump supporters storming US Capitol

Supporters of US President Donald Trump in front of the US Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6. (AP/Yonhap News)

On Jan. 7, Democratic Party lawmaker Song Young-gil, who chairs the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, said the incident in which protesters stormed the US Capitol “raises questions about whether the US is in a position to lecture the Republic of Korea on democracy and human rights.”

Song’s remarks read as a sarcastic jab at objections from the US State Department to an amendment of the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act that ban attempts to send anti-North propaganda over the inter-Korean border.

In a July 7 appearance on YTN radio, Song referred to the attack on the Capitol as a “truly unfortunate situation,” adding that South Korea is “extremely dismayed as an ally.”

“I think it shows how it destroys democracy when people exhibit extreme thinking, claiming that they alone are right while ignoring the Constitution, whether they’re on the left or right,” he added.

Song also said US President Donald Trump “sent a very mixed message” by expressing sympathy for his supporters while he called on the protesters to disperse.

“Trump’s supporters will read his remarks two ways,” he predicted. Two hours after the protesters stormed the Capital, Trump sent a message to them saying, “[Y]ou have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order.” At the same time, he also told his supporters, “I know your pain, I know you're hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us.”

Song also remarked on the seizure of a South Korean tanker by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“This incident was caused by the Revolutionary Guard. The Revolutionary Guard is not an organization subject to [Iranian President Hassan] Rouhani’s controls,” he said.

“There are limits to what Rouhani and the [South Korean] Ministry of Foreign Affairs are capable of doing,” he explained.

“The head of the Iranian Parliament’s Supreme National Security Council is a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard general, so we’re working to establish a connection there,” he added.

By Kim Won-chul, staff reporter

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