Former Prime Minister and Presidential Candidate Supports Reinvestigation of Son Jung Min’s Mysterious Death
A presidential candidate and high-profile politician has backed the efforts of Son Jung Min’s family to find the answers to their son’s mysterious death in the Han River earlier this spring.
His name is Hwang Kyo-Ahn. He posted a public message of support on his Facebook page after meeting with SJM’s family last week.
Does Hwang sound familiar to you? Well, he was the Acting President of South Korea from December 2016 to May 2017 after President Park Geun-hye was impeached. Immediately before that he was the 40th prime minister of South Korea, serving for the President Park administration.
He was a former Justice Minister who helped bring down a suspected pro-North Korean lawmaker accused of plotting to overthrow the South Korean government should an inter-Korean conflict break out on the peninsula. Essentially though, he destroyed this lawmaker’s ultra-left party, the UPP, which included a lawmaker who also ran against President Park in the 2012 election and made it her mission to constantly launch spiteful vendettas against Park Geun-hye. Hwang helped Park destroy her enemies. And for that, it seems as if he was rewarded for those efforts with the prime minister spot.
After the stint as the acting president, he became the resurrected post-impeachment conservative party’s leader and an Assemblyman until he became the face of its declining popularity among voters.
Now, with political history store in short term memory banks, he has come roaring onto the nominee field with some very rational, well thought out and pragmatically inspiring plans to embolden the future of Korea.
And it seems part of this strategy is to reach out to the voter base — mothers across Korea — through the Son Jung Min case.
Nevertheless, it is huge to get a high profile political endorsement. And it makes it look as if the National Assembly would greenlight a vote.
In his facebook post Hwang says:
“I met with the parents of Son Jung Min yesterday. They’re related to a member of my campaign team. This is what I heard from him: “Despite getting over 520,000 signatures for a Blue House petition, there was barely a response from the president. The police hardly made an on-site investigation and wrapped up a hasty internal investigation. Even though I filed criminal charges, they’re not lifting a finger in their duties to investigate. I wanted to submit the charges to the prosecution so they could investigate, but it wasn’t possible for me to remove the right of investigation from the police. So I had to file with the same police department again. This worried me greatly. That’s why I started the petition with the National Assembly.” Hearing his account made me uneasy and sick to the stomach. Citizens across the nation who have followed this case and seen how mismanaged it was are also sick to the stomach. Meanwhile, the police remain unresponsive. We must get rid of injustice for our people. It is the nation that should exert the effort to create a safe society for its citizens. If you resonate even a little bit with the parents, wrapping up this investigation neatly with all of the sloppy questions stuffed under the rug should not be the goal. We need to finish with every suspicion and doubt cleared up. I will also help to uncover the truth. Please sign the petition. As long as we keep signing, it keeps the parents’ spirit strong. It keeps Son Jung Min’s spirit strong.”
Oh, did I mention Hwang was a prosecutor? That gives him some skin in the game to make the police look bad. By helping SJM’s dad he secures the loyalty of whoever relative that campaign member is on his team. Plus, he replenishes political capital among the prosecution cohort who will gloat over how damaging this is to the police efforts to wrestle power away from prosecutors.
See, nothing is for free in Korea. And nobody moves without getting something in return. This is how SJM’s father has to keep aligning himself if he wants to keep winning in this battle. Onwards!
PETITION!
Let’s demand a scientific-based investigation and a full release of CCTV footage into the disappearance of Son Jung Min at the Han River.
SIGN THE PETITION (FOR KOREANS): https://petitions.assembly.go.kr/status/registered/C830BE9E54525352E054A0369F40E84E
SIGN THE PETITION (FOR NON-KOREANS): https://www.change.org/sonjungmin
Originally published at https://www.theseoulite.com on September 1, 2021.
