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| Main opposition Democratic Party of Korea Chairman Lee Jae-myung speaks at the party's Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly, Feb. 27. Yonhap |
Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung lashed out at the government's personnel vetting system Monday after the appointment of a new national investigation chief was canceled a day after its announcement.
The office of President Yoon Suk Yeol nullified the appointment of Chung Sun-sin, a prosecutor-turned-lawyer, as chief of the National Office of Investigation on Saturday, following revelations that Chung's son had been punished for school bullying.
On Monday, Lee slammed the cancellation as "the worst personnel fiasco."
"The Yoon Suk Yeol administration's personnel vetting system is in a state of complete malfunction," the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) chairman said during a party meeting. "Had there been an appropriate vetting, the chief of all police investigation would not have stepped down just 28 hours after his appointment."
From the beginning, Chung's appointment drew criticism because it meant putting a former prosecutor, not someone from police, in charge of all police investigations. Critics said the appointment was yet another example of Yoon's preference for people with prosecution backgrounds.
What dealt a critical blow to the appointment was revelations that Chung's son had verbally abused one of his peers for eight months in high school and was ordered to transfer schools, and the parents had even filed a lawsuit to get the transfer order reversed, only to lose.
Pointing out that Chung is a prosecutor who is close to Yoon, a former top prosecutor, Lee called on the president and the justice minister to apologize over the vetting incident and accused them of filling key government positions with prosecutors.
Lee also said his party will look into launching a task force on probing the bullying controversy and the government's vetting system.
School violence is considered one of the most deeply despised wrongdoings in Korea.
Many celebrities, such as singers and professional athletes, have apologized following revelations of their involvement in bullying schoolmates, and some even saw their careers end due to negative public perceptions of what they did in the past.
Chung's appointment also came in the wake of a growing public outcry over bullying at schools, prompted by the popularity of the hit Netflix series "The Glory" that centers on a school violence survivor who returns to take revenge.
"We have to correct this situation where the lives of school violence victims are ruined, while their perpetrators keep winning and winning," Lee said. (Yonhap)
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