Despite Opposition's Objection... Ruling Party Pushes Through Adoption of Hwang Hee Confirmation Report

After Do Jong-hwan, Chair of the Literature Committee, Expressed Intent to Vote, People Power Party Lawmakers Left the Meeting Room

Hwang Hee, nominee for Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, is delivering an opening statement at the confirmation hearing held at the National Assembly on the 9th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kum Bo-ryeong] Despite opposition from the opposition party, members of the ruling Democratic Party on the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee forcibly adopted the personnel hearing report on the nominee for Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Hwang Hee, on the 10th.

The Culture Committee passed the adoption of the hearing report during a plenary session in the morning, with members of the People Power Party having left the meeting.

Park Jung, the Democratic Party’s secretary, said, "From the ruling party’s standpoint, we decided to adopt the result report." Park added, "The opposition mostly questioned morality, while ruling party members tried to verify through questions about Hwang’s expertise and current policies."

The biggest issue raised by the opposition was Hwang’s doctoral dissertation. The opposition claims that a significant portion of Hwang’s dissertation is identical to the 2017 report titled "Smart City Overseas Cases and Development Directions," which the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee commissioned from Yonsei University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation. At that time, Hwang was a member of the National Assembly Land Committee.

The research report was written in Korean, while Hwang’s dissertation was written in English. During the personnel hearing held the previous day, the opposition requested Hwang to submit the Korean version of the dissertation, but Hwang responded that the Korean content had been discarded and it was difficult to submit.

On the same day, People Power Party lawmaker Bae Hyun-jin said, "The dissertation issue we pointed out yesterday is not plagiarism. We made a legitimate request for proof that he wrote the dissertation himself by directly using the original text." She added, "The commissioned report was written with 20 million won of taxpayers’ money, and since Hwang used it in his dissertation to obtain his doctoral degree and possibly gained electoral advantage, the entire process needed to be verified."

When Do Jong-hwan, chairman of the Culture Committee from the Democratic Party, expressed his intention to hold a vote, People Power Party members left the meeting room. Hwang is expected to become the twenty-ninth ministerial-level official appointed under the Moon Jae-in administration without the opposition’s consent.

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