Park Ji-won calls on Kim Min-seok to apologize over Shincheonji allegations

Park Ji-won, a five-term senior lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Korea, said ahead of the party's announcement of its internal probe findings into alleged Shincheonji involvement that he hoped party leader Kim Min-seok would apologize and move on.

"I don't know what Rep. Kim will say at the general assembly meeting today, but I hope he apologizes and puts the matter to rest," Park said Tuesday on YTN Radio's "Jang Sung-cheol's News Myeongdang." "How long are we going to keep dragging out the Shincheonji issue?"

Park said he had spoken with two senior party officials at a dinner Monday, where Kim and lawmakers of five or more terms gathered. He spoke with Supreme Council member Lee Sung-yoon, who is aligned with Rep. Jung Chung-rae, and Supreme Council member Park Seon-won, who heads the party membership task force overseeing the Shincheonji allegations probe.

"When I asked what the Shincheonji issue was about, Council member Lee said there was nothing to it, and when I asked Council member Park, he said there was a little something," Park said. "So I told them: don't apply a tough standard only to the People Power Party — apply the same yardstick to ourselves. Announce the findings as they are and let the public decide. We must not cover it up, exaggerate it, or turn it into a fight."

Park added that if the allegations turned out to be nothing, the party should announce exactly that, and Kim — who first raised the issue — should apologize to party members and close the matter. "A pro-Jung council member who was briefed on the findings said there was nothing much to it," Park said. "If there's nothing much, there's nothing much — why would anyone say one thing and then another?"

On concerns that an apology could damage Kim's leadership, Park said anyone can make a mistake, and that a sincere apology was far better than trying to explain away remarks made in the heat of a primary election contest.

Meanwhile, Park also weighed in on the People Power Party's conduct during President Lee Jae Myung's budget policy speech at the National Assembly on Monday, in which PPP members held up picket signs, heckled the president and walked out en masse. "I hope the opposition's reflexive obstructionist politics comes to an end," Park said. "The public has moved to the level of AI, but politics is still stuck in the Stone Age."