People Power Party floor leader Jeong Jeom-sig delivers a speech representing his parliamentary negotiating bloc during a plenary session of the National Assembly on Sept. 8.LIM HYUN-DONG
The opposition People Power Party (PPP) floor leader Jeong Jeom-sig on Tuesday ruled out discussions on constitutional revision under the current administration and accused the ruling bloc of seeking to use an amendment to extend the president’s term and delay his trial.
“There will be no constitutional amendment under this administration,” Jeong said during a speech at the regular session of the National Assembly. “We will never discuss constitutional revision with forces that blatantly violate the Constitution and seek private gain through constitutional amendment.”
Jeong also spoke about President Lee Jae Myung’s August remark about a constitutional amendment allowing presidents to serve two terms.
“But he never says, ‘I won’t seek another term’ or ‘I will stand trial,'” Jeong said. “Is the intention perhaps to extend his term through a constitutional amendment and use that to delay his trial?”
“The No. 1 state affairs priority of the current government and ruling party is wiping away the president’s own crimes,” Jeong added. “Are they now trying to use constitutional amendment as yet another tool to erase his crimes?”
He stressed the PPP will take a “completely different path” from the Democratic Party (DP) as he laid out the party’s key pledges.
People Power Party (PPP) lawmakers applaud as PPP floor leader Jeong Jeom-sig delivers a speech representing his parliamentary negotiating bloc during a plenary session of the National Assembly on Sept. 8.YONHAP
Jeong also addressed the infringement of voting rights stemming from ballot shortages during the June 3 local elections. On the day of the local elections, multiple polling stations, including the one in Jamsil 7-dong in Songpa District, southern Seoul, ran out of ballots, which disrupted voting.
“We will properly scrutinize the bloated and arrogant National Election Commission,” Jeong said, adding, “We will completely abolish the early voting system, which cannot even manage properly, and consider extending the main voting period.”
On the abolition of prosecutors’ authority to conduct supplementary investigations, Jeong said that DP has opened a “door to hell.”
The revision to the Criminal Procedure Act stripped prosecutors of their remaining authority to conduct supplementary investigations when police investigations were inadequate, leaving them mainly with the power to indict.
The National Assembly passed the amendment on July 31, while retaining prosecutors’ authority to request additional investigation from police.
“Driven by hatred and vengeance against prosecutors and greed for votes at their party convention, the DP has finally forced open the door to hell,” Jeong said.
“Distorting the judicial system will lead to inadequate investigations, and inadequate investigations will ultimately inflict suffering on the public.”
“We will protect the safety of the people,” he added. “We will begin by restoring the collapsed public security system. We will restore prosecutors’ authority to conduct supplementary investigations.”
Turning to housing, Jeong said, “The president went after the people, not real estate.”
He continued, “As a candidate, the president pledged not to use taxes to rein in real estate, but his policies since taking office have been the exact opposite. It is ‘campaign pledge fraud.’”
People Power Party floor leader Jeong Jeom-sig delivers a speech representing his parliamentary negotiating bloc during a plenary session of the National Assembly on Sept. 8.LIM HYUN-DONG
Jeong also remarked on the jeonse (lump-sum deposit) rental system.
“Why should the younger generation be denied the benefits of a system that we ourselves enjoyed?” Jeong said.
He said the PPP will protect the housing ladder — opportunities to gradually move into better housing — for the people.
“We will start by abolishing regulations on private redevelopment and reconstruction projects and sharply increase the housing supply,” Jeong said.
“We will make sure single-home owners do not have to worry about taxes,” he said. “We will provide acquisition tax reductions and ultra-low-interest loans for first-time home purchases by young people and newlyweds.”
During the session, Jeong addressed single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which were released in May in an effort to draw investors back to the domestic stock market. However, as trading heated up, regulators started to reverse course by suspending new listings of single-stock products until the market stabilized and investor-protection requirements were tightened. Trading has collapsed since the regulatory U-turn.
“Investment losses are estimated at between 54 trillion won [$40 billion] and more than 56 trillion won,” Jeong said about the single-stock ETFs.
“There must be not only a parliamentary investigation but also an investigation by a special counsel,” he added. “We must get to the bottom of whether those in power pressured authorities to introduce these products, whether that pressure came solely from former presidential policy chief Kim Yong-beom or from someone higher up, and why they were launched immediately before the local elections.”
Kim was among the people who bolstered the project. He stepped down as presidential policy chief on Sept. 1 amid the controversy.
Jeong also criticized the government-led investment in a semiconductor cluster in the Honam region, calling it “the kidnapping of conglomerates.”
The government announced in June that Korean chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK hynix would construct large-scale facilities in the Honam region, which encompasses the Jeolla provinces and Gwangju.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
