Kim Min-seok responds to Shincheonji controversy, "I'm sorry to the party members... Even if it's fully disclosed, it's a problem."

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Jeong-jin = Kim Min-seok, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, said on the 5th regarding the suspicion of Shincheonji membership joining the party, "Even if we had gone for a full disclosure method, there would have been various problems internally that were the same or even bigger."

Representative Kim appeared on the Democratic Party's YouTube broadcast 'Minty 07' on this day and responded to a question about the conflict within the party surrounding the suspicion by saying, "The backlash will exist in all aspects and may grow larger."

Regarding the theory of responsibility for raising suspicions about Shincheonji in the pro-Qing (pro-government) circles, he said, "I think that apart from the process of institutionally overcoming concerns within the party about the Shincheonji issue, the issue of responsibility for 'didn't they raise (issues) like this without content or basis?' can be naturally resolved with a conclusion. I am not very concerned."

He continued, “The issue of the main bill will take some time,” but added, “Because the lawmakers accepted it at the general meeting, we will go through the remaining processes.”

Previously, at the general meeting of lawmakers, Representative Kim suggested that the party make self-cleaning efforts and take steps to improve the system to eliminate concerns about religion's interference in politics, and announced that the lawmakers agreed on this.

However, conflict within the party continues over this, with the pro-Qing faction demanding a public apology from Representative Kim.

Representative Kim expressed his feelings, saying, “First of all, I am sorry and grateful to the party members,” and “To be honest, I feel very uncomfortable.”

He said, “I was uncomfortable when I first raised the Shincheonji issue, and the process of investigating it was also uncomfortable,” and added, “The issue of religion intervening in politics itself is not easy.”

He added, "Some people say, 'Can't we just handle it through an investigation?' But even so, there are problems that are not easy. We have entered the process of identifying concerns through internal inspection in a relatively less shocking and orderly way and figuring out how to improve institutionally and overcome this with the party's own capabilities, so we will try to resolve it through that process."

Meanwhile, Representative Kim reiterated that the party's position has been resolved to postpone taxation on virtual asset income, which is scheduled to be implemented from next year.

Representative Kim postponed the implementation of taxation, saying, "There are various difficulties in entering into taxation when the law related to the basic framework of the Digital Assets Act itself has not been enacted. We gathered the final opinion that it would be right to enact the law first and start through the process of becoming familiar with it under the law. We conveyed that position to the government."