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| Liberty Korea Party Chairman Hong Joon-pyo speaks at a party event held in Daejeon, Tuesday. |
By Choi Ha-young
Opposition politicians, Tuesday, called for the designation of an independent counsel to investigate an opinion-rigging case involving an influential blogger nicknamed "druking" and Rep. Kim Kyoung-soo, a loyalist of President Moon Jae-in.
Hong Joon-pyo, chairman of the largest conservative Liberty Korea Party (LKP), likened the Moon administration to "Goebbels" in a Facebook post. "The police and the prosecution are not qualified to investigate. Only, special prosecutor can reveal the truth," Hong said.
On the same day, 110 LKP lawmakers submitted a bill to appoint the independent counsel. In the bill, they claimed the police intentionally omitted Rep. Kim's alleged involvement in the case. They called for excluding the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) in appointing the special prosecutor.
The National Assembly can decide to appoint a special prosecutor to look into politically sensitive allegations, as it did to investigate the influence-peddling scandal involving ex-President Park Geun-hye in 2016.
Ahn Cheol-soo, mayoral contender of the third-largest Bareun Mirae Party, echoed the call. "The Assembly should promptly appoint a special prosecutor. For this, all opposition parties should join hands," Ahn said in a press conference.
"Further, the Assembly should hold a parliamentary inspection and hearings, so citizens can listen to what druking says."
Rep. Kim held a separate press conference, Monday, to quell the spreading rumors. There, he admitted he delivered druking's personnel recommendations to the presidential office of personnel affairs. Opponents suspect this was in return for druking's online activities in favor of Moon during the presidential election in May.
The opinion-rigging case is one of the most volatile issues here, since former conservative administrations mobilized public servants to fabricate an online atmosphere in favor of them. Regarding this, Rep. Kim said druking-led online campaigns were voluntary moves irrelevant to intervention in elections.
Since Kim is a nominee of the DPK for the gubernatorial election in South Gyeongsang Province in June, the scandal is expected to hamper the DPK's election strategy. So far, the popular ruling camp has been largely expected to dominate the upcoming elections.
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