PPP intensifies attack ahead of Cheong Wa Dae audit: 'Are Kim Hyun-ji and Jeong Jin-sang untouchable?'

The People Power Party ramped up its offensive against the government and the ruling party Thursday, ahead of a national audit of Cheong Wa Dae by the National Assembly's steering committee, demanding to know whether Kim Hyun-ji, chief of the presidential secretariat's first office, and Jeong Jin-sang, former chief of staff for policy coordination under the Democratic Party leader, were "off-limits" to scrutiny.

PPP Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sik, speaking at a supreme council meeting Thursday morning, acknowledged that the steering committee would conduct a national audit of Cheong Wa Dae, but predicted the session would amount to what he called the Democratic Party's "all-out shield audit for Kim Hyun-ji and Jeong Jin-sang."

Jeong trained his fire on the collapse of efforts to subpoena the two as witnesses, saying the Democratic Party's fierce opposition had ultimately blocked their appearance. "I wonder just how powerful Kim Hyun-ji and Jeong Jin-sang are, that the Democratic Party is throwing everything into shielding them like this," Jeong said.

Jeong then drew a pointed contrast with the party's treatment of the chief justice. "The Democratic Party said no one was above scrutiny when it came to the Supreme Court chief justice and heaped all manner of insults on him during the audit," Jeong said. "Is the presidential secretariat chief now a sacred zone exempt from the audit? Is Kim Hyun-ji above the chief justice — above the National Assembly itself?"

Jeong called the failure to secure the witnesses "a travesty that destroys the balance among the legislature, the executive and the judiciary and dismantles the separation of powers." Despite the Democratic Party's all-out defense to protect Kim and Jeong, Jeong said the audit had already exposed the full extent of what he described as personnel manipulation by the Seongnam-Gyeonggi line.

Jeong added that of the 364 executives appointed to public institutions over the past year under the Lee Jae Myung administration, 74 had ties to President Lee or the Democratic Party, and 23 were classified as belonging to the Seongnam-Gyeonggi line.

Jeong also took aim at what he characterized as a rigid patronage hierarchy within the Lee administration. "This is why people say the top caste is the Seongnam-Gyeonggi line, the second caste is the president's legal defense team, the third is those from the Democratic Party, and everyone else is an untouchable," Jeong said.

"By turning today's Cheong Wa Dae audit into a shield operation for its inner circle, the government and the ruling party have voluntarily surrendered their chance to explain the Kim Hyun-ji and Jeong Jin-sang appointments and the Seongnam-Gyeonggi line's personnel manipulation to the public," Jeong said. "They have confessed that the personnel scandal is not merely an allegation — it is the truth."

Jeong also took direct aim at a proposed amendment to the Court Organization Act being pushed by the ruling bloc, which would require the Supreme Court chief justice to recommend at least twice the number of candidates for Supreme Court justice seats as there are vacancies. "The left-wing party has made up its mind to dismantle the separation of powers in this country," Jeong said.

Jeong called the bill unconstitutional and warned it would trigger a deadlock. "If the chief justice submits a double slate and the president rejects it, what happens? It becomes a personnel ping-pong match," Jeong said. "And the more that happens, the more the president ends up wielding and shaking control over Supreme Court appointments."

Jeong said the bill's own explanatory note explicitly stated it was designed to guarantee the president's power of selection. "That is the part that nakedly reveals the weapon's purpose," Jeong said, adding that the amendment would reduce the judiciary to "a political colony of the executive." Jeong urged the Democratic Party to abandon the unconstitutional legislation.