Ousted PPP leader attacks President Yoon directly in petition to court

Aug 24, 2022, 08:08 am

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Lee Jun-seok, former chairman of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), answers questions from reporters after a questioning on the injunction case regarding the party’s decision earlier to oust him from the post, held at the Seoul Southern District Court in Seoul on Aug. 17, 2022./ Source: Joint Press Corps

AsiaToday reporter Lee Ha-eun

Lee Jun-seok, former chairman of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), has attacked President Yoon Suk-yeol directly in his letter to the court, claiming that the president had been the one to take the initiative to oust him from the party’s leadership.

“If the current situation is not corrected by the court, the supreme one will be tempted to more actively exercise the right to declare an emergency situation just as he did last time, like Chun Doo-hwan’s new military junta that went into emergency martial law,” Lee wrote in the handwritten petition revealed Tuesday through a media outlet. “The right to declare an emergency will remain an indelible threat and dominate the party no matter who comes into the leadership.”

Lee called Yoon, “the supreme one,” likening the president’s behavior to the military junta led by Chun Doo-hwan who rose to power through a military coup.

The former chairman also pointed there may be someone behind the party’s shift to an emergency leadership system. Lee alleged that Rep. Kim Ki-hyun and Rep. Joo Ho-young, who had kept a low-profile without commenting about the issues, showed overconfidence about the PPP’s decision to get Lee ousted from the party, adding that what they had done was seen as act to challenge the court’s authority. Lee wrote that the supreme one granted them the privilege of exemption from liability.

Lee also revealed an offer from a close aide to President Yoon that if he steps down from his position as party leader, the party will help him out in the ongoing police investigation of him regarding allegations that he accepted sexual services as a bribe in return for a political favor from a businessman, and that the aide would talk to the president to give Lee the opportunity to serve as Yoon’s special envoy to several different countries.

The revelation of the petition caused a stir in the political community.

Rep. Joo Ho-young, the interim leader of the PPP, expressed displeasure. “I think Lee himself has become a dictator,” he told reporters following a luncheon with the standing advisory group. Joo denied Lee’s claim, saying, “I just said that there was no procedural flaw in the PPP’s decision. That’s it.”

Rep. Kim Ki-hyun hit the former party chairman. “A grenade with a safety pin pulled out is really dangerous,” he wrote on his Facebook. “You are free to imagine but, remember that too much imagination becomes a delusion and destroys yourself.”

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