[News UP] The ball goes to the Constitutional Court...When will President Yoon's 'impeachment judgment' conclude?

■ Host: anchor Yoon Bori, anchor Cho Jin-hyuk
■ Starring: Park Yong-chan, chairman of the party's cooperation committee, Kang Sung-pil, vice chairman of the Democratic Party's National Communication Committee

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN News UP] when quoting.

[Anchor]
Park Yong-chan, the People's Power Yeongdeungpo, will be joined by the chairman of the party's cooperation committee and Kang Sung-pil, vice chairman of the Democratic Party's National Communication Committee. Please come in.

Last weekend, Yoon's impeachment bill passed the National Assembly. At the same time, the ball was handed over to the Constitutional Court. How do you see the situation so far?

[Park Yongchan]
impeachment of the president It's been 8 years, isn't it? In 2004, the impeachment motion against former President Roh Moo Hyun was voted on. And in 2016, the impeachment motion against former President Park Geun Hye was approved and cited by the Constitutional Court. In the process, didn't Korea really become a complete mess? Conflict and confrontation, division and confusion, and how many wounds, pain, and blood tears did you shed? This national misfortune is repeating itself again. I can't help but feel really miserable about the part that it's being repeated. Anyway, now that we have moved on to the Constitutional Court, the impeachment train has started. I think our party should also respond steadily to this.

[Anchor]
You said it was disastrous that the national misfortune was repeated, but how did you see the impeachment?

[Kang Sungpil]
On Saturday the 14th, the second impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol's president barely passed. The Democratic Party of Korea expected at least 22 to 34 votes in favor of impeachment because 22 incumbent lawmakers from the People's Power ruling party voted in favor of the permanent special prosecution of the emergency martial law. However, in the end, it was only 12 votes in favor, 3 abstentions, and 8 invalid votes, which was very disappointing.

There is a question of how much crime he had to commit to overwhelmingly pass the impeachment bill. When I looked at it that day, there was a pro-choice rally in Yeouido and a counter-assembly in Gwanghwamun. But in the case of Yeouido, there were a lot of very young people. They will vote for the next 50 years or so, and I'm very concerned about how the power of the people can ask them to vote in the future.

[Anchor]
President Yoon said he would not avoid legal and political responsibility. However, the prosecution notified President Yoon last Wednesday that he should attend yesterday, but he did not respond now. Since it's Wednesday in the prosecution, didn't we vote in the National Assembly on Saturday? Given that the summons was notified long before the National Assembly vote, I think there is no reason to delay it.

[Park Yongchan]
That's right. First of all, the main suspects of the rebellion mission. Isn't the investigation almost complete now? The counterintelligence commander, the defense minister, the special forces commander, and even the defense commander. The head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, the head of the National Police Agency. Almost all military and police commanders have been arrested or requested arrest warrants. And the investigation is almost complete. In this state, the investigation into Yoon Suk Yeol's president can no longer be postponed. In that sense, I requested the first summons. However, President Yoon Suk Yeol is not yet ready to start pleading. In other words, isn't the defense team complete now? Therefore, a defense team must be formed, and the facts of the person should be proved for various inquiries. And it takes some time to build a legal response logic. In that sense, I believe that President Yoon Suk Yeol is struggling.

[Anchor]
I'll ask the vice chairman like this. If you look at this point, the first summons was on the 11th, and the next day, on the 12th, didn't President Yoon Suk Yeol's statement come out? Some analysts say that CEO Han Dong-hoon also responded to this conversation, saying it was like a pleading, but there must have been some impact on the composition of this conversation after the first summons. What do you think?

[Kang Sungpil]
First of all, the first problem for Yoon Suk Yeol's president is whether he voluntarily resigns or goes to the impeachment trial to determine whether he is guilty or not. In that sense, when you voluntarily resign, you may lose everything right away. In any case, if you don't have a presidency and are investigated, you may have unfavorable conditions in various situations anyway, so you would have wanted to keep the presidency until the end. That's why I'm analyzing that I said I'll go into the impeachment review and fight until the end.

In any case, the president refused to comply with the summons. However, if they refuse to comply with the summons by the third round, they will be able to forcibly secure recruits. Anyway, when I think about it, President Yoon Suk Yeol would have thought of responding to the investigation anyway as to whether or not impeachment will be passed on the 14th. And anyway, at the time, the investigative agency tried to search and seizure a while ago, but wasn't there a physical confrontation with the security service?

Since it is a military facility, it needs the permission of the head of the agency, but anyway, because it was impeached, his duties were suspended and the president's authority was all transferred to Prime Minister Han Deok-soo, so Prime Minister Han Deok-soo is the head of the agency in the presidential office. Therefore, if Prime Minister Han Deok-soo grants permission, it is possible to secure the president of Yoon Suk Yeol without physical conflict between the security agency and the investigative agency, and finally, the president said in a statement that he would fight to the end politically and legally, so now that his duties have been suspended, please respond to the prosecution's investigation or investigative agency to hide the truth.

[Park Yongchan]
In addition, the prosecution and the police are building a justification for securing Yoon Suk Yeol's presidential recruits, that's what I think. If they do not comply with the first, second, and third summons notices, there is a possibility that they will be arrested. There are two kinds of arrests. There is an emergency arrest, in other words, an emergency arrest that can be arrested without a warrant. And there will be a method of arrest through the issuance of an arrest warrant to obtain a warrant. But in reality, President Yoon Suk Yeol is currently staying in the presidential office or his official residence. In that case, an arrest should be attempted through security personnel, but such a plan is not realistic. Therefore, as a last resort, there is a way to request a preliminary arrest warrant, and in this case, the court will issue an arrest warrant only when the considerable charges are clarified because the court must request an arrest warrant without investigating the president of Yoon Suk Yeol.

[Anchor]
I think we'll have to wait and see if President Yoon will comply with the prosecution's summons. With the situation like this, Prime Minister Han Deok-soo is now the acting president. In the meantime, the Special Prosecutor Act on President Yoon and the Special Prosecutor Act on First Lady Kim Gun-hee were in the hands of acting president. You can legally exercise your veto power, but isn't it a little difficult to enforce it again?

[Kang Sungpil]
That's right. Anyway, since the president's authority is transferred to the prime minister according to the protocol hierarchy, it is true that Prime Minister Han Deok-soo became the president's authority, and it is true that veto power, appointment and recommendation of a member of the State Council are all legally transferred to Han Deok-soo in the future. But anyway, Prime Minister Han Deok-soo is an unelected power. That's why I believe you will do better than anyone else because you started as a bureaucrat at the age of 22 when it comes to exercising certain powers in the future, but you should come to the National Assembly to discuss politically meaningful decisions with the ruling party, opposition party representatives, and the National Assembly Speaker to exercise your authority.

In fact, we had a lot of concerns about the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Deok-soo. Because there was a Cabinet meeting at the time of the emergency martial law, and there is no minutes yet to know whether Prime Minister Han Deok-soo passively agreed or objected. In this situation, I had a lot of concerns because if negative news came out, the legitimacy would be undermined, but anyway, Prime Minister Han Deok-soo has experience as the acting head of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, who assisted Prime Minister Goh Kun in the impeachment of President Roh Moo Hyun. Therefore, the Democratic Party of Korea has decided to show that the confusion of emergency martial law is going stably to the people and overseas. I will tell you that.

[Anchor]
So, acting Han Deok-soo said that the National Assembly should fully accept the opinion of the National Assembly and run the state administration, but I will also ask you this. Isn't acting Han Deok-soo a suspect? Some point out that the acting system is at stake, so what do you think of this?

[Park Yong-chan]
Well, acting Han Deok-soo is the suspect. We're still trying to find out more about that. Of course, he is legally a suspect, but have charges been found now enough to be called to the prosecution and prosecuted for trial? You need to think about that. As you just said, didn't you mention former Acting President Goh Kun? It was 2004 at that time. When former President Roh Moo Hyun was impeached, Ko Gun was the former acting president, and at that time, Ko Gun had already vetoed the amendment to the National Assembly's amnesty law and demanded a reconsideration from the National Assembly. There's a precedent.

And basically Prime Minister Han Deok-soo is now acting, but he has constitutional authority to serve through the Cabinet. However, there is an opinion that it would be better to conduct only normal and basic state administration in consideration of various political situations, but theoretically, the authority can be fully exercised under the constitution. So, my party and I personally think that we should not give up on the philosophy of state affairs based on national interests. Therefore, in the case of the Kim Gun-hee Special Prosecutor Act, he has already proposed to the president to exercise his veto power three times under Prime Minister Han Deok-soo.

Therefore, there is no reason for Prime Minister Han Deok-soo to change his position on the Kim Gun-hee independent counsel law now. That's how we see it. And you said that you are not elected in the Democratic Party of Korea, but you have not lost your presidency. The president's position is not lost right now, just because he cannot do presidential duties. Therefore, the power of our people is the ruling party, and Prime Minister Han Deok-soo has the authority to oversee the cabinet, I really want to say that.

[Anchor]
Both sides are divided on the exercise of Han Deok-soo's authority. Anyway, until the Constitutional Court decides, Prime Minister Han Deok-soo will act as acting president. Constitutional experts seem to be weighing more on the possibility that the Constitution will quote, how do you predict it?

[Kang Sungpil]
Wouldn't there have been impeachment against the three presidents in our country? However, in the case of former President Roh Moo Hyun, it was not a very simple matter related to the neutrality of the election, and in the opposition's view, it was not a big issue, and the second was former President Park Geun Hye, which we think can be summed up as a kind of misconduct. So, it's a case of misconduct in which a person without authority tried to take advantage of the power of the president. That's why the issue was actually a little complicated because there were a lot of people involved in the process of making economic gains and it included policy things.

However, regarding the third emergency martial law of the Yoon Suk Yeol president this time, both the constitution and the criminal law meet the requirements for rebellion. It's not complicated. In other words, the National Assembly and the National Election Commission, which are constitutional institutions, were dispatched to paralyze their power. If you temporarily or permanently paralyze it, it's included in the crime of rebellion. But what would have been more obvious than this, as the public saw and heard all these testimonies in which soldiers entered the National Assembly through windows and tried to arrest key figures? And then there was the procedural problem of emergency martial law.

When the president tries to declare an emergency martial law, the Ministry of National Defense first holds an emergency meeting to see if the current situation meets the requirements of the emergency martial law, and then when the requirements are met, the Ministry of National Defense's planning and management officer writes a proclamation and a statement and reports it to the Prime Minister. Then the Prime Minister's process of deliberating on it is the Cabinet meeting. Through such a process, an emergency martial law should be declared, but the Ministry of National Defense's planning and management officer did not write such a thing and the emergency committee was not held. This is why the opposition believes that this is a very clearly simple case, and that the Constitution can quickly conclude it, because procedural legitimacy has also been undermined.

[Anchor]
What do you think of it as a much clearer position than the impeachment of President Park Geun Hye?

[Park Yongchan]
Well, that's what you'll see in the Democratic Party, but won't you know what's long and short until you see it later? First of all, the first and foremost part of the Constitutional Court that needs to be judged now is the act of governing emergency martial law. In other words, can political and military decisions be seen as reasons for impeachment of the Constitutional Court? We're going to look at that part first. Next, the entry into the National Assembly and the NEC. Whether it really jeopardized the existence of the National Assembly, the National Election Commission, and the constitutional institution. I think I'll pay a lot of attention to that as well.

And the most important part is whether President Yoon Suk Yeol has made various mistakes, but those mistakes are gravely unconstitutional or illegal. I think this will be the most important issue. So, in particular, was the degree of rioting powerful enough to completely harm the tranquility of a region in terms of rioting and rioting constituting the crime of rebellion? In other words, simple acts of violence are not included in the act of rioting. Therefore, I would like to stress that it should be at a level that can seriously threaten the stability and order of the community.

[Anchor]
Isn't it a six-member system of the Constitutional Court now? I'm also interested in when I can have a nine-person system, so what do you think of it?

[Park Yongchan]
The nine-member system will be completed in December, that's what I think. Now, it is expected that the Democratic Party will push very quickly. So around December 24th, weren't 3 people recommended now? Two Democratic Party candidates and one from the People's Power have been recommended, and the Democratic Party will hold confirmation hearings on three candidates for the Constitutional Court on Dec. 23 or 24. And the motion for appointment will be processed by the National Assembly around December 30. Then it will be completed in December.

[Anchor]
In the midst of this, the power of the people is a little noisy. I'll be back in a minute. CEO Han Dong-hoon is scheduled to hold a press conference at 10:30 a.m. today, and some analysts say that he would like to resign at this time. The collapse of the leadership is the biggest reason, right?

[Kang Sungpil]
Anyway, in the eyes of the opposition party, the impeachment civil war of the people is very worrisome. The 12-minute leadership has changed since President Yoon Suk Yeol took office. Has this ever happened? I think it is difficult to find such cases overseas, but I think the people's power should listen first to the fact that the people are very concerned about how they entrusted the government to such a political party. In any case, politicians should be well aware of their progress and retreat. The way to go and the way to go. From that point of view, I think CEO Han Dong-hoon has no choice but to step down. Although it is burdensome to say anything because it is an opposition party, isn't the president produced by the conservative party on the verge of being impeached?

Then, as a representative, you have to be responsible for this, but did I do emergency martial law against the current lawmakers? Did I vote? These comments are quite inappropriate. And although the regulation stipulates that if four elected officials resign, the leadership will collapse, in fact, the resignation of the two supreme council members classified as representative Han Dong-hoon's side shows the lack of leadership that Han Dong-hoon has not been able to properly embrace his aides.

[Anchor]
At the press conference at 10:30 p.m., there is a prospect that CEO Han Dong-hoon will probably announce his resignation. If he really resigns, isn't he a person who actually received a lot of attention as a rival to Lee Jae-myung? The political toll will be considerable, right?

[Park Yong-chan]
That's right. Hasn't there been a lot of controversy over the leadership and political power of representative Han Dong-hoon? In particular, after the emergency martial law incident, representative Han Dong-hoon was criticized for taking a lot of steps as he was somewhat divided, but for example, he said he was in favor of impeachment, then he was in favor of it, then he was in favor of it, and then he was against it again, raising many questions about the leadership and political power of representative Han Dong-hoon. Of course, when I look back on the situation at the time, it is judged that it was not a good or easy condition to make decisions and judge easily. But now, before and after the impeachment vote, and in the House floor, a number of remarks.

For example, President Yoon Suk Yeol confessed to the civil war through a public statement, made this kind of public statement, and did I do the emergency martial law that Vice Chairman Kang Sung-pil just mentioned? Did I vote during impeachment? Having said it in this way, it can be seen that he stabbed a nail in his heart to the members of the People's Power at the General Assembly, which is a very tragic feeling now. Anyway, I think CEO Han Dong-hoon needs time to recharge while taking a break for the time being.

[Anchor]
I'll ask you a short question right away. If so, it will be a transition to the emergency committee system, but there are several people who are being discussed as the emergency committee chairman. CEO Kim Moo-sung's name is also coming out. How do you view it?

[Park Yongchan]
CEO Kim Moo-sung is being discussed, but as far as I know, it is not a strong situation right now. We will have to wait and see, but this emergency committee should be filled with such systems and people who can instill stability and unity in our party. Wouldn't the emergency committee system roll with the impeachment trial now? And whether the results of the impeachment trial are cited or dismissed, the emergency committee system is not a system that will last long. If the impeachment decision is cited, it immediately moves on to the presidential election system. In that case, there is a high possibility that it will immediately move on to the election committee and the election committee system. As such, I believe that this emergency committee should be conducted thoroughly as a management-oriented emergency committee based on stability.

[Anchor]
No matter who comes to the emergency committee chairman of the People's Power, we should now make efforts to stabilize the state of affairs with the National Assembly and the government. Now, National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik and Representative Lee Jae-myung have proposed a plan for a national stability consultative body. The government also said it would participate, but Kwon Sung-dong, the floor leader of the People's Power Party, showed insufficient opinions. How did you see it?

[Kang Sungpil]
Kwon Sung-dong, the floor leader of the People's Power Party, refused, not insufficient. From the perspective of our opposition party, we can only say that it is really absurd. This is the reason why I refuse. The power of the people is still the ruling party. Don't pretend that the Democratic Party is the ruling party. That's why we should hold a quick party-government consultation meeting with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. That's what it means. So one of the things that President Yoon Suk Yeol has done so badly in his two and a half years of state administration is that politics with the opposition party is missing. How can you manage state affairs without opposition parties in the situation of opposition parties? In fact, if we objectively evaluate the current situation of the people, we do not have the ability to pass a single bill.

You have to seek the cooperation of the Democratic Party on all bills anyway. Simply put, doesn't it look straightforward just by looking at the budget bill this time? Power of the People Have you passed any legislation in the past two and a half years? However, in this situation, how will the people feel when they still try to exclude the opposition party and still seem to boast that they are the ruling party? And now it's a bipartisan situation. I hope floor leader Kwon Sung-dong feels that the ruling party, the opposition party, the National Assembly speaker, and Prime Minister Han Deok-soo have to put their heads together and revive the economy first because the economy is so difficult right now.

[Anchor]
You just urged me to cooperate, so I'll ask you the next question. Chairman, as early presidential elections are expected, attention is being paid to the candidates for the next presidential election, and above all, attention is continuing to be paid to Lee Jae-myung's judicial risk. Will Democrats be able to move beyond this judicial risk, what do you think of this?

[Park Yongchan]
Before answering that question, Chairman Lee Jae-myung said, "The ruling party has disappeared." It's really unacceptable for us. Of course, the Democratic Party is the number one party in the National Assembly. And we are a minority party, but as I said earlier, the position of President of Yoon Suk Yeol has not been lost. We are still the ruling party, and our position to cooperate with the Democratic Party and the National Assembly as the ruling party remains completely unchanged. However, the ruling party is definitely not at this point. The ruling party is gone. What would be good for the Democratic Party of Korea or representative Lee Jae-myung to solve the political situation in the future by mentioning it in this way? After putting nails in our hearts like this, will the state administration be able to operate stably?

That is the last thing I want to say. Even if we talk about the same thing, I can't help but think that it would be better to speak without scratching each other's chest. Didn't you ask about CEO Lee Jae-myung's judicial risk? Representative Lee Jae-myung must be very anxious right now. Didn't the first trial ruling come out on November 15th? If so, the second trial will be decided within three months, but if you calculate the date, it will be February 15th next year. If the appeals court ruling comes before February 15 next year and the appeals court convicts the fine of more than 1 million won, there will be a great hit and the political situation will be very swirling, that's what I think.

[Anchor]
I've talked a lot with the two of you about the impeachment. A little later, there are messages about the acting president of the Constitutional Court of the impeachment on his way to work, so I'll say hello to the two of you here for now. Park Yong-chan, the People's Power Yeongdeungpo, was joined by the chairman of the party's cooperation committee and Kang Sung-pil, vice chairman of the Democratic Party's National Communication Committee. Thank you.