Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok said on the 19th, "A court handed down a heavy sentence to the person who, in the name of president, trampled on the Constitution and pointed the blade of power, entrusted by the people, at the people," adding, "In a democratic republic, power that makes the sovereign people its enemy can never be forgiven. This ruling is heavy, but proper."
In a statement posted on Facebook after the Seoul Central District Court's first-instance ruling sentencing former President Yoon Suk-yeol to life imprisonment, Lee said, "The crisis of conservatives is not a president who went to prison. It is the people who still speak in that president's language," and added, "Even at this moment, there are forces seeking political gain by using the name Yoon Suk-yeol as a shield."
Lee said, "Now they act as if putting a single dot under the eye would turn them into someone else, trying to mislead the public as if they were never like that," and emphasized, "What today's sentencing means for the conservative camp is one thing: with bare hands, humbly and simply, we must start over again."
Lee said, "The jackpot-seeking politics that touted sending opponents to prison as if it were an achievement, and the political line that fed off prosecutorial power, must now come to an end," adding, "What the Reform Party seeks to do is surgically remove the specter of prosecution-centered jackpotism that briefly perched in the conservative camp, and quietly pave the way so that conservatives once again stand as a trusted choice for the people."
Lee said, "Before this ruling, the Reform Party steels itself with an even graver mind," adding, "With the resolve to work with humility so that Korea's politics can change, we will walk a path that does not shame the people."