Opposition whip labels peace regime proposal as 'fraud'

Rep. Jeong Jeom-sig, floor leader of the main opposition People Power Party, on Tuesday accused President Lee Jae Myung of deceiving the public with his notions of establishing peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.

In his address to the National Assembly on Tuesday, Jeong said that the Lee administration's push for reconciliation with North Korea comes at the cost of military readiness, while a breakthrough in inter-Korean relations remain elusive.

"The peace regime proposal toward North Korea was a fraud from the beginning," Jeong said. Jeong added that Seoul's conciliatory gestures without concessions from Pyongyang are not only worthless, but also dangerous.

Jeong said that Lee's assurance of South Korea's military capability as being sufficient to counter external threats fails to take into account North Korea's nuclear capabilities.

The floor leader's criticism was also directed at the South Korean military, citing news reports that some South Korean military posts are turning to extendable batons or unloaded rifles for guard duty, as well as a friendly fire incident involving a US drone.

"In the past, South Vietnam lost (its war against North Vietnam), not because they lacked military manpower and weapons, but because they were decaying from within," Jeong said.

Jeong also slammed Unification Minister Chung Dong-young's proposal in August to stop officially describing North Korea as South Korea's "main enemy," which Chung called "hate speech," may create false hope.

"Is North Korea instantly becoming a friend of ours once we stop calling them 'main enemy?'" Jeong asked.

Jeong claimed that South Korea's left-wing party has "bowed to the main enemy and begged for peace and an end-of-war declaration while handing (North Korea) money."

"As South Korea stood subservient to North Korea, Kim Dae-jung's Sunshine Policy (in the early 2000s) gave birth to North Korea's nuclear weapons. South Korean people are now held hostage to North Korea's nuclear threat," Jeong said.

Seoul's response to US President Donald Trump's abrupt reduction of the annual joint military drills in August is yet another example of the Lee administration's foreign policy failures in handling the US and North Korea, Jeong said.

"It is lamentable that President Lee paid respect to Trump and hailed him for his effort for peace," Jeong said.

Jeong, who was elected as the party's whip in June, also stressed that the People Power Party will reject efforts for a constitutional amendment throughout Lee's term.

According to Jeong, this stems from the president's failure to declare that the liberal bloc's push to ease a presidential term limit shall not apply to Lee himself.

Allowing South Korea's president to be reelected requires an amendment to the Constitution, which currently stipulates that a president shall serve a single five-year term. While the Constitution states that no amendment concerning the term limit would apply to the incumbent president, Lee's political opponents have raised speculations that clause itself could be the subject of an amendment.

"Isn't it President Lee's intention to extend his term through an amendment and further delay his criminal trials? Is he using the constitutional amendment as a tool to get away with his crime?" Jeong said.

"The People Power Party hereby states that there is no amendment for the Lee administration. We will never cooperate with the forces that seek personal benefit through an amendment."

The liberal Democratic Party of Korea's Rep. Park Sung-joon referred to Jeong's speech as "far-right incitement" filled with "cursing language."

Regarding Jeong's refusal to consider a constitutional amendment ― which has not been realized for nearly four decades ― Park said Jeong had "acknowledged that (the People Power Party) was the force that has undermined democracy."

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol was a member of the People Power Party at the time of his declaration of martial law in December 2024.