"I Am Extremely Afraid": The Final Statement of Minister Kim Yong-hyun

Honorable Presiding Judge, I am currently extremely afraid.

I am not afraid that I will receive a heavy punishment in this trial.

I am afraid that my beloved motherland, the Republic of Korea, might degenerate into a Chinese or North Korean communist socialist system and become a vassal state—that this event might become the catalyst (pump priming) or the gateway for such a fall.

I am afraid that the proud Republic of Korea might become like Venezuela.

Currently, the Republic of Korea is in the midst of a war of systems. We are in a silent war, an invisible war, a hybrid war.

Depending on the outcome of this war, the Republic of Korea stands at a crossroads: will we continue to prosper alongside liberal democratic nations like the United States and Japan, or will we degenerate into a vassal state of the Chinese and North Korean communist socialist systems?

Honorable Presiding Judge, although it may be presumptuous, I earnestly ask you to please remember our descendants who are born on this land, grow up on this land, and will continue to live on this land.

Thank you.