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| ▲ Main opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung speaks at an event on March 1, 2023, commemorating the 140th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement. (Yonhap) |
opposition leader-Yoon
Opposition leader urges Yoon to apologize over canceled appointment of investigation chief
SEOUL, March 2 (Yonhap) -- Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung on Thursday called on President Yoon Suk Yeol to apologize over the canceled appointment of a new national investigation chief following revelations of a school bullying case involving the appointee's son.
The cancellation of the appointment of Chung Sun-sin, a prosecutor-turned-lawyer, as chief of the National Office of Investigation, revealed problems with the government's personnel vetting system. Critics also say Chung's appointment reflected Yoon's preference for people with prosecution backgrounds.
What raised the public ire was the fact that Chung's son had verbally abused one of his peers for eight months in high school while boasting of his father's status as a senior prosecutor, and was ordered to transfer schools as punishment, but the parents even filed a lawsuit to get the transfer order reversed.
"The Yoon Suk Yeol government should reveal every detail of the vetting process and punish those responsible," Lee, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party, said in a Facebook post. "President Yoon should offer explanations to the victim and the people and apologize."
Presidential spokesman Lee Do-woon has said the current vetting system for public servants was insufficient to screen issues involving their children, adding that a questionnaire Chung submitted did not include questions on school violence.
"They are consistently evading responsibility, saying they couldn't find out about the incident, which is easily searchable through a few clicks, before Chung mentioned it himself," Lee said. "Rather than being unable to screen for it, perhaps they didn't even think about screening for it."
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