“Truly Uncompromising. Too Much Is as Bad as Too Little.” Cho Eung-cheon Speaks on the Decision to Keep Lee Jae-myung as Party Leader

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Cho Eung-cheon. Kyunghyang Shinmun Archives

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Cho Eung-cheon said, “Too much is as bad as too little,” after the party’s committee on party affairs decided to retain Lee Jae-myung as party leader on the day he was prosecuted in connection to the Daejang-dong case and argued there was a problem in the decision-making process.

In an interview on Kim Jong-bae’s Focus (MBC radio) on March 23, Cho criticized the meeting of the committee on party affairs held the previous day--the day Lee was prosecuted--and said it was “truly uncompromising” and that overall, it showed that “too much is as bad as too little.” The legislator had constantly criticized Lee’s leadership, which continued to stir controversy with its legal risks and accusations of a “bulletproof” defense.

When the host asked, “Are you saying that the party is going too far to protect Lee?” Cho said, “Yes,” and explained, “I think things happened the way they did because of concerns that the rejection of his arrest motion fixed our party image as one trying to ‘bulletproof’ him.”

He also argued that there was a procedural problem in the committee’s decision to keep Lee as party leader. According to Article 80, Clause 1 in the Democratic Party’s constitution, the committee has to first suspend the leader from his party duties if he is charged for corruption. But the committee decided to keep Lee as party leader without any suspension after concluding that the indictment was political oppression according to Article 80, Clause 3.

Lawmaker Cho said, “I would like to focus on what spokesperson Kim Eui-kyeom said about the reason for the committee’s decision, that whether or not there was a criminal allegation was not important, that what was important was whether the intention (behind the charges against Lee) was to oppress politicians or not.”

He explained, “When there is no criminal allegation, or even if there is, if it is a very light allegation, in such cases, if the attitude of the prosecutors changes according to the party, this I think is political oppression.” He further said, “Their argument of political oppression regardless of whether the criminal charges were serious or not, I found myself wondering if this was a completely subjective opinion or if they were reading minds.”

Cho Eung-cheon, a former prosecutor, said that it would not be easy for the prosecutors to prove allegations against Lee in court. The latest charges against Lee Jae-myung did not include the alleged promise that Lee was to receive 42.8 billion won in shares from a private company that took part in the Daejang-dong development. Cho said it was because the evidence was weak and added, “When we compare it to the ‘5 billion won club,’ which was acquitted despite the fact that the money was actually transferred and prosecutors had transcripts of conversations, I wonder if the charges will hold in this case (against Lee).”