Kim Soon-hwan (left), Secretary-General of the Committee for the People's Livelihood, began a hunger strike on the 26th after filing a complaint with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on the 9th against acting Prosecutor General Noh Man-seok and Justice Minister Chung Sung-ho, among others, following the prosecution's decision to waive its appeal in the Daejang-dong development corruption allegations. To the right is Lee Jin-bok, head of the Committee for the People's Livelihood. Kim Moon-hee, CEO of the Institute for Health Studies and Human Rights, is lying on her left side, covered by a padded blanket. Reporter Lim Yo-hee 

Kim Soon-hwan, Secretary-General of the Committee for the People's Livelihood (CPL), and Kim Moon-hee, CEO of the Institute for Health Studies and Human Rights (IHSHR), who filed a complaint alleging external pressure to waive the appeal in the Daejang-dong case, have entered their third day of a hunger strike.

Following the prosecution's decision to waive its appeal in the Daejang-dong development corruption allegations, Secretary-General Kim filed a complaint with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on the 9th against then-acting Prosecutor General Noh Man-seok and Justice Minister Chung Sung-ho, among others, and commenced a hunger strike on the 26th. 

The slogans for this hunger strike are: "If you cannot stop Lee Jae-myung's tyranny, then dissolve the National Assembly. We will remain until the day the National Assembly is halted," and "Immediately halt the formation of the 'Oct. 15 Housing Market Stabilization Measures & Government Innovation TF Respecting the Constitution,' and push for legislation for a special prosecutor and the recovery of criminal proceeds in relation to waiving the appeal."

Meeting Secretary-General Kim in front of the National Assembly on the afternoon of the 28th, he was continuing his hunger strike, relying on a single mat and a waterproof sheet with no proper tent.

Secretary-General Kim stated, "We will continue our struggle (hunger strike) until our three demands are met."

The first of his demands is an apology and prompt resolution from the Lee Jae-myung administration and the Democratic Party regarding the "Oct. 15 Housing Market Stabilization Measures," which he claims "excluded young couples and youth from statistics, causing self-contempt and pain to the common people in the ten autonomous districts."

Secretary-General Kim emphasized that this was an act equivalent to statistical manipulation, stating, "Kim Yong-beom, Presidential Office Chief Policy Officer, claimed during the National Assembly's audit that 'September statistics did not exist on October 14th, the day the Housing Policy Deliberation Committee was held.' However, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport received September housing price statistics from the Korea Real Estate Board on the afternoon of October 13th, and despite knowing that the September housing market trends of the Korea Real Estate Board were officially announced at 2 PM on October 15th, the housing market stabilization measures were announced at 10 AM on the same day." 

As his second demand, Secretary-General Kim is calling for an investigation into whether there was external pressure related to the waiver of the prosecution's appeal and urges the National Assembly to prepare legislation for the recovery of criminal proceeds.

He stated, "With the decision to 'waive the appeal' in the Daejang-dong case at 00:00 on November 8th, following the first-instance ruling related to Lee Jae-myung, the recovery of approximately 780 billion won in criminal proceeds from the Daejang-dong private developers has become impossible. This has caused immense damage to the 910,000 citizens of Seongnam. This is a case where there is a reasonable suspicion of intervention by the Presidential Office for the sake of Lee Jae-myung."

The complaint filed by Secretary-General Kim on the 9th listed six individuals as defendants in addition to Noh Man-seok and Minister Chung: Park Cheol-woo, Deputy Chief of the Anti-Corruption Bureau at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office; Lee Jin-soo, Vice Minister of Justice; Kim Hyun-ji, Senior Secretary for Political Affairs at the Presidential Office; and Bong Wook, Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs at the Presidential Office.

On the 18th, Secretary-General Kim was investigated as the complainant at the Seoul Seocho Police Station in relation to this matter.

Thirdly, Secretary-General Kim demanded an apology and prompt resolution regarding the "promotion of whistleblowing" under the guise of "forming a government innovation TF respecting the Constitution," which began on the 24th. He stated that this illegal surveillance, which extends to examining the mobile phones of 750,000 public officials, infringes on human rights. He warned that this is an extremely inappropriate action that goes beyond privacy invasion and can shake individuals' lives to their core, potentially exacerbating conflicts among colleagues and lowering morale, leading to further harm to the public.

Secretary-General Kim Soon-hwan (left) of the Committee for the People's Livelihood and Head of Department Lee Jin-bok during their hunger strike in front of the National Assembly. Reporter Lim Yo-hee

Furthermore, he stated, "The public's anger has reached its limit towards the National Assembly, which has remained silent in the face of the Presidential Office's decisions that disregard the National Assembly," and explained, "I have put aside all my work and embarked on this hunger strike to set the National Assembly right."

Finally, Secretary-General Kim alluded to a planned demonstration, stating, "Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the 'Dec. 3 Emergency Martial Law,' the National Assembly has commissioned National Assembly Speaker Special Advisor for Event Planning, Tak Hyun-min, to plan a 'Dark Tour' to revisit the situation at the time, and a 'Media Facade' to project images onto the National Assembly building. Patriotic citizens will gather in front of the National Assembly on the afternoon of December 3rd to prevent their disrespectful performance."

Reporter Lim Yo-hee