Na Kyung-won slams Lee over 'scapegoat' remark, raises prospect of impeachment

People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won sharply criticized President Lee Jae-myung on Thursday over his remarks in a foreign media interview suggesting he could become a "scapegoat" in the recurring cycle of presidential impeachments and detentions in South Korea — going so far as to raise the prospect of impeachment against Lee himself.

In a Facebook post, Na called the president's interview comments "truly shameless cosplay as a victim deceiving the public" and told him to "stop throwing around the word scapegoat."

"'Scapegoat' is a word used when an innocent person is sacrificed in place of another," Na said. "It is not a word for someone who is a four-time convicted felon facing eight cases, 12 charges and five ongoing trials."

Na also said the deaths of people in Lee's inner circle were closer to actual sacrifice, and asked why Lee was "building up a narrative blaming his criminal charges on a Cheong Wa Dae curse."

"The real scapegoats are the judicial system and the people," Na said, arguing that the rule of law in South Korea was being undermined and ordinary citizens were suffering the most as a result of what she called the Lee administration's destruction of the constitution and manipulation of the judiciary.

Na questioned why the Lee administration remained passive in the face of widespread controversy over alleged voting irregularities and poor election management — matters she said strike at the foundations of democracy — while focusing solely on erasing Lee's criminal record. "If Lee Jae-myung does not stop dropping charges against himself, he must be impeached," she said. "The suspended trials must also be resumed without fail." The remarks marked the first time Na explicitly invoked impeachment in connection with the president's push to have his indictments withdrawn.

Na closed by saying that whatever consequences Lee faces in the future will not be "a Cheong Wa Dae curse" but "the clear result of his own actions — cause and effect, justice taking its course." She added: "A criminal bearing legal responsibility for crimes committed is never a sacrifice. It is simply the restoration of a damaged rule of law."

The Economist reported Wednesday that Lee said the odds were "quite high" that he would become a scapegoat in the same cycle that has seen more than half of South Korea's presidents since democratization either impeached or imprisoned.