“Anti-State Action,” President Yoon and People Power lash out on Youn Mee-hyang for attending an event organized by Chongryon

Jun Joo-hye (left), spokesperson for the People Power Party (PPP) on the floor, and Jo Myung-hee, deputy floor leader, submit a proposal for disciplinary measures against independent lawmaker Youn Mee-hyang at the Bills Division of the National Assembly on the morning of September 4. Yonhap News

On September 4, President Yoon Suk-yeol said, “Regardless of political camps, we, along with all citizens, need to firmly respond to an anti-state action that threatens and aims to destroy the national polity based on liberal democracy.” His words aimed at independent legislator Youn Mee-hyang, who recently attended a memorial service remembering the massacre of ethnic Koreans at the time of the Great Kanto Earthquake, organized by the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon), a pro-Pyongyang organization.

Lee Do-woon, the spokesperson for the Office of the President, conveyed the president’s words in a press briefing and explained that the remark was made during a meeting with the senior secretaries at the presidential office in Yongsan Monday.

A key official from the presidential office said, “The Supreme Court once ruled that Chongryon was an anti-state organization under the National Security Act,” and asked, “How could our citizens understand the behavior of a lawmaker on the people’s payroll attending an event organized by an anti-state organization and sitting it out listening to them refer to South Korea as a puppet?”

In recent remarks, President Yoon continued his attacks on ideology, connecting the opposition party with North Korea. In a congratulatory address on the sixtieth anniversary of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy on September 1, the president said, “Communist totalitarian powers, their opportunistic followers, and anti-state forces instigate anti-Japanese sentiment and mislead the public as if the system of cooperation by South Korea, the United States and Japan, which the three countries agreed to at Camp David, would put the Republic of Korea and its citizens in danger.”

On Monday, the People Power Party (PPP) all joined in the attack on lawmaker Youn Mee-hyang. The party leader Kim Gi-hyeon said, “She is a person more appropriate as an executive of the Workers’ Party of Korea.” The PPP urged the Democratic Party of Korea to expel Youn from the National Assembly and presented the case to the parliamentary ethics committee.

In a meeting of the party’s Supreme Council at the National Assembly Monday, the PPP leader said, “It was revealed that lawmaker Youn, once a member of the Democratic Party (in the past) and who still has a bond with the party, sided with an anti-state organization while receiving taxpayers’ money arousing public indignation. Nevertheless, the Democratic Party has not said a word.” Kim further said, “If the Democratic Party does not support the anti-state behavior of Youn, then we ask that they agree to stern action and expel her from the National Assembly.”

The PPP floor leader Yun Jae-ok asked, “Attending a Chongryon event as a legislator of South Korea, when they referred to the government of the Republic of Korea as a South Korean puppet, can this be possible?” and criticized, “If she (Youn) had the least bit of love for her country, the Republic of Korea, and was the least bit wary of the North Korean regime, she should not have gone to an event hosted by a leading pro-Pyongyang organization or have sat there for even a minute or a second.”

The People Power Party submitted a proposal for disciplinary action against Youn Mee-hyang at the Bills Division of the National Assembly Monday.

Such a general attack by the PPP is completely in contrast with its passive response to the recent controversy over the bust of General Hong Beom-do. Even the top two figures in the party, who lay low when it came to an issue where public opinion was not favorable, joined in and were busy attacking Youn. They may have deemed that Youn provided a good opportunity to strengthen the Democratic Party’s image as a pro-North party by attending an event hosted by a pro-Pyongyang organization.

In the House Steering Committee on Monday, the PPP continued its attacks on lawmaker Youn. Minister of Unification Kim Yung-ho said, “She (Youn) violated existing law.” Youn violated the law because she failed to report her coming into contact with a pro-Pyongyang organization to the unification ministry prior to attending the Chongryon event.

On Monday, a conservative civic group reported Youn Mee-hyang to the Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office for violating the National Security Act.