Park Jeong-ha: Han's remarks on Roh not meant to revive painful past, but to call out hypocrisy

People Power Party lawmaker Park Jeong-ha said Tuesday that independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon's decision to raise allegations of cash-and-gifts acceptance involving former President Roh Moo-hyun and his family was "not aimed at bringing up the tragic circumstances surrounding former President Roh again."

Speaking on MBC Radio that day, Park said Han was instead pointing to "the hypocritical situation in which many progressive figures who once spoke about former President Roh have now turned around and appear to be exploiting him to maintain their own political standing."

"Some have asked why we need to dredge up that painful episode again," Park said, "but if what Rep. Han is trying to say is properly organized and conveyed to the public, I think it is something that needs to be examined at some point."

He added that the episode could prompt those who have been "politically exploiting the tragedy surrounding former President Roh to reflect on themselves," and give the public a chance to think, "Oh, so there was that side to it as well."

On the vote Monday at the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information, Broadcasting and Communications Committee national audit — led by the ruling-party bloc — to recuse Rep. Lee Jin-sook, Park said Democratic Party lawmakers "had a political motive," citing "significant political pressure" over Lee's past conduct and her involvement in a recent Assembly forum related to the May 18 Gwangju Uprising.

However, Park expressed regret that the matter had escalated to a formal recusal vote, saying the two sides "could have found a workable middle ground through proper consultation." He suggested that Lee had given some pretext for the move, while the Democratic Party had gone beyond evaluating her role as a committee member and folded in other issues to push for her recusal.

Turning to President Lee Jae Myung's social media activity, Park said, "I think a president needs to have some breathing room, but looking at his recent SNS posts, he seems to have none at all." He added that whether it was due to approval ratings or some internal issue within the ruling camp, the president appeared to be juggling many concerns — personnel matters, the South Korea-US alliance, security issues — and came across as "lacking composure and looking a bit rushed."