"Was Going to Ask a Question..." Kim Jong-min Defends Choo Throughout 13 Minutes of Government Inquiry

Kim Jong-min, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, is speaking on the afternoon of the 14th during the political sector government questioning session held at the National Assembly plenary hall regarding allegations of special treatment in military leave for the son of Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae.
Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Joo-hee] On the 15th, Kim Jong-min, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, explained why he did not question Minister of Justice Chu Mi-ae, who is under suspicion of special treatment for her son's military leave, during the National Assembly's government questioning session. Kim drew criticism for only defending Minister Chu during his 13-minute questioning time the previous day (14th).

In an interview with CBS Radio's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' on the 15th, Kim said, "I intended to ask questions, but among the issues raised by Yoon Jae-ok (People Power Party) earlier, there were inaccuracies, so I tried to clarify those facts first, which took a long time."

Kim added, "While questions are important, since the issue surrounding Minister Chu Mi-ae is blocking our National Assembly, I went with the mindset of 'Let's try to sort this issue out.' I focused on clarifying the facts to confirm and debate points that opposition party members either misunderstood or intentionally omitted."

During the government questioning session the previous day, Kim spent the entire 13 minutes allotted for his questions solely rebutting the allegations of special treatment regarding Minister Chu's son's military leave. Following this, Speaker Park Byeong-seok warned after Kim's remarks, stating, "In principle, government questioning should be conducted as a one-on-one Q&A with the government side."

Kim referred to the duty soldier who first raised the allegations related to Minister Chu's son, saying, "Opposition members may get excited after hearing the soldier's words. However, the unit commander testified at the time, and common sense tells us that is it possible to discover a soldier who did not return for 23 days only on the 25th?" He insisted, "(The suspicion of absence without leave) is not true. The allegations should be made based on facts."

He also said, "If there was special treatment or a 'mom's chance' for Minister Chu's son, the discretionary reward or consolation leave granted by the commander, not the duty soldier, should have been at least one day longer than others." He added, "He used about half of the leave compared to others, so is it reasonable to criticize him for 'mom's chance'? The allegations are not true."

Earlier, duty soldier Hyun Mo (26) claimed that on June 25, 2017, he became aware of Minister Chu's son Seo's absence without leave and ordered him to return via the unit phone, but Seo did not return. Hyun stated that Seo's leave was until the 23rd (Friday), but since there was no evening roll call on Friday and Saturday, he only realized this on the 25th (Sunday).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.