People Power Party slams Kim Eojun over remarks downplaying Jang Yun-gi case

Broadcaster Kim Eojun drew sharp criticism from the People Power Party after saying that cases like the Jang Yun-gi murder — in which a high school girl in Gwangju was killed — happen "several times a year," with the party calling his remarks "a savage act no better than that of a beast."

Park Sung-hoon, the People Power Party's chief spokesperson, said in a statement Saturday that Kim was "slashing a tragedy for purely partisan gain, rather than wiping away the tears of the victim and her bereaved family, who lost their lives to an outrageous violent crime."

Park rebuffed Kim's remarks directly, saying that if such horrific cases truly occur several times a year in South Korea, "that is all the more powerful a reason why prosecutors' supplementary investigative authority must be preserved even more thoroughly."

Park said the Jang Yun-gi case was one "whose full, ugly truth — a rape-motivated murder that police had nearly missed and buried — could only be uncovered because prosecutors conducted a supplementary investigation."

He went on to warn that if the Democratic Party pushes through legislation to abolish prosecutors' supplementary investigative authority by force, ignoring public concern and even dissenting voices within its own ranks, it "would be admitting to the world that it is a political community that has abandoned the lives of the people and is dancing to the agitation of YouTubers like Kim Eojun."

Earlier, Kim had mentioned the Jang Yun-gi case on his YouTube channel Thursday, acknowledging it was "a case that deserves attention." He questioned why it was receiving such extensive coverage, however, saying it had "topped nearly every media outlet for about a week straight."