Reform Party warns Lee of Nixon-style resignation over bid to drop charges

By Jung Seok-jun, The Herald Business

The Reform Party warned Monday that any attempt to drop charges against President Lee Jae Myung would end only in resignation, drawing a parallel to former US President Richard Nixon. "Don't even dream of withdrawing the indictment," party leader Lee Jun-seok said. "The only way this ends is the same way it ended for Nixon — resignation."

Speaking at the party's supreme council meeting at the National Assembly, Lee said the so-called salmon drinking party incident was the starting point for what he described as the Lee administration's hypocrisy. "They spit on prosecutors' indictments as fabrications, yet shamelessly bring prosecutors' power and connections into the presidential office," he said. "The salmon drinking party is where that double standard began. It was a crime — fabricating events that never happened to deceive the National Assembly."

The remarks came after Lee Hwa-young, former vice governor of Gyeonggi Province, was sentenced June 20 to four months in prison in a first-instance citizen jury trial on perjury charges. Lee Hwa-young had raised allegations including the so-called "salmon drinking party at the Suwon District Prosecutors Office."

Lee Jun-seok called on every Democratic Party lawmaker who had championed the salmon party allegations over the past two years to make their positions known. "These are the people who branded a single prosecutor a 'seduction operative,'" he said. "The full firepower of the ruling party and the administration was trained on one prosecutor."

He added that using another person's life as kindling to cover one's own wrongdoing was disqualifying in itself. "What brought down President Nixon in America more than 50 years ago was not the crime of wiretapping — it was the cover-up," he said.

"Nixon fired the special prosecutor investigating him, and in the end he was the one removed," Lee said. "The Lee Jae Myung administration's salmon party fabrication will end no differently."

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Lee addressed allegations that Jung Seok-jun, a former Busan mayoral candidate, staged a drink-throwing incident himself. "Because he has already left the party, the measures available to us are limited, but we are making every effort to get to the truth," Lee said.

Reform Party floor leader Cheon Ha-ram also criticized the Lee administration at the meeting, saying it had reversed course on real estate policy and was moving toward ideology rather than pragmatism — following a typical Democratic Party playbook.

"President Lee Jae Myung has become a spicier version of Moon Jae-in," Cheon said. "Policy chief Kim Yong-beom has said property holding taxes and capital gains taxes should be raised to prevent liquidity from the semiconductor boom from flowing into the real estate market."

"Why should people be blocked from buying property with money earned from rising share prices or performance bonuses?" Cheon added. "And how exactly would you stop that?"

"If you want to raise taxes to fund a basic income or a national dividend scheme, say so honestly," he said. "But we have already been down the road of raising both holding taxes and capital gains taxes together — the Moon Jae-in way. It locks up supply, drives up monthly rents and kills tenants."

On housing supply measures, Cheon said key posts responsible for supply policy remained vacant while recycled proposals for sites such as Yongsan, Taereung Country Club and Gwacheon were drifting due to a lack of realism and opposition from local residents. "We hope the administration will prioritize realistic supply measures now and take the path for the people, not the path of the hardcore base," he said.