Ahn Cheol-soo backs Jung Chung-rae's reelection bid, calls him 'vanguard of early lame duck'

By Jung Seok-jun, The Herald Business

People Power Party lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo said Tuesday that "public judgment on the Democratic Party of Korea's judicial destruction has already begun." He added that a "dead cross" — in which negative assessments of President Lee Jae Myung's administration have overtaken positive ones just one year into his presidency, as core Democratic supporters and centrist voters peel away — is the opening signal of that reckoning.

Writing on Facebook, Ahn said a first-instance court had sentenced former Vice Governor Lee Hwa-young to four months in prison on charges of perjury before the National Assembly related to what he called a "salmon drinking party." He described the verdict as "an entirely reasonable decision," saying the citizen jury had "wisely identified the contradiction" in testimony that a celebration was held before a confession was even made, and that the court had accepted that finding.

Ahn then criticized Democratic Party leader Jung Chung-rae for rejecting the outcome. "Jung called it 'a truly regrettable and strange ruling' and denied the result," Ahn said, adding that Jung had gone further by spreading a conspiracy theory that it was "a stitch-up by prosecutors," thereby "insulting the citizens who gave ten precious days of their time to serve on the jury."

Ahn went on to say that Jung not only rejected the verdict in the Lee Hwa-young trial but also vowed to abolish prosecutors' supplementary investigative powers as the final step in prosecutorial reform. He also said the Democratic Party intends to keep pushing a special prosecutor act aimed at dropping the charges against President Lee.

On Jung himself, Ahn said he could not tell whether Jung simply failed to read the room or whether, knowing full well what was happening, he privately welcomed the president's falling approval ratings to boost his own reelection chances as party leader. "I cheer on the reelection of Democratic Party leader Jung Chung-rae — the vanguard of regime change and the standard-bearer of this administration's early lame duck," Ahn said.