[2020 National Audit] Heated Dispute Over Alleged Favoritism Toward Choo's Son... Ministry of Justice Audit Disrupted

Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae is adjusting her glasses while attending the National Assembly Judiciary Committee's audit of the Ministry of Justice on the 12th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] On the 12th, during the morning National Assembly inspection of the Ministry of Justice held by the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, a conflict between ruling and opposition party lawmakers intensified over allegations of preferential military leave granted to Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae's son, Seo Mo, ultimately leading to a breakdown of the session.

At the start of the inspection, the ruling and opposition parties clashed over requests for documents. They debated for nearly 20 minutes over the request for property data of Lee Kang-seop, head of the Legislation Office, which was mentioned during the inspection on the 7th, and only began the main questioning at 11:30. Lawmaker Song Ki-heon of the Democratic Party of Korea started the questioning focusing on prosecutorial reform, but voices between both sides grew louder over the allegations of 'preferential leave' for Minister Choo's son. Previously, the People Power Party had requested about 20 general witnesses, including Seo Mo, related to the minister's allegations, but the Democratic Party completely rejected this.

People Power Party lawmaker Jeon Ju-hye asked Minister Choo, "Do you intend to apologize for giving false testimony during the government questioning?" Minister Choo responded, "I did not give false testimony. I did not violate any laws or make any improper requests or instructions." Regarding the prosecution's investigation result that she passed the support officer's number to an aide, she countered, "That message proves that I did not give such instructions."

When Lawmaker Jeon said, "The purpose of my question was to ask about the truthfulness of your statements during the government questioning," Minister Choo replied, "The fact that such a message exists in the KakaoTalk chat is only known because this phone was forensically examined, but I do not remember it."

In particular, Minister Choo strongly opposed Lawmaker Jeon's remark calling it a 'military absence case,' saying, "It is not a military absence case." Regarding the statement about 'saving Private Seo with the Ministry of National Defense,' she said, "Private Seo is not someone who was saved. He completed his military service. There was no need to save him."

As Lawmaker Jeon's questioning continued and ruling party lawmakers protested, People Power Party lawmaker Jang Je-won requested, "Please maintain order so that the minister and lawmakers can quietly conduct the Q&A," and criticized, "Lawyer Kim Nam-guk is too much. Why does he intervene at the end of every sentence and answer for Minister Choo?" Although Chairman Yoon asked Lawmaker Kim Nam-guk to "please be quiet," the loud exchange between Lawmakers Jang and Kim continued.

In particular, Lawmaker Kim said, "The opposition party does not ask about people's livelihoods or other questions but only talks about political strife related to Minister Choo," and added sharply, "Courtesy means mutual respect, so why don't you keep it well? Why do you speak informally, insult others, behave rudely, and then demand courtesy?"

This time, a loud argument broke out over whether informal speech was used, and Chairman Yoon Hojung declared, "It is now difficult to continue the inspection," and announced, "The inspection is suspended and will resume at 2 p.m."

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