Hong Seok-jun: "Democratic Party's Hearing Boycott? No 'One Shot' Against Lee Dong-gwan"

President Yoon Suk-yeol has nominated Lee Dong-gwan, Special Advisor for External Cooperation at the Presidential Office, as the new Chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, amid opposition parties even mentioning a 'hearing boycott.' In response, Hong Seok-jun, a member of the People Power Party, pointed out, "If they boycott, it's because they have no effective move against this special advisor."

On the 31st, Hong said on MBC's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' program, "We will continue to persuade the Democratic Party until the end and ask them to hold the hearing together."

Former Blue House Chief of Public Relations Lee Dong-kwan accompanied former President Lee Myung-bak on his departure to Bahrain at Incheon Airport on the 12th, expressing his position regarding the current government's National Intelligence Service comment investigation. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

According to political circles, the Presidential Office is expected to submit the nominee's appointment consent bill to the National Assembly during the move. According to the Personnel Hearing Act, the hearing must be completed within 20 days after submission, so there is a high possibility that the hearing will be held around mid-next month.

The opposition party is raising voices against the nominee, claiming that he led 'media suppression' while serving as the Blue House Public Relations Chief during the Lee Myung-bak administration. Hong said, "This is a political offensive raised by the Democratic Party and some others," adding, "When we look at whether any of those allegations were concretely executed during the nominee's time as Public Relations Chief, we see that nothing concrete was actually carried out."

He continued, "Unlike during the Moon Jae-in administration, when incidents such as ousting KBS President Ko Dae-young and MBC President Kim Jang-gyeom, or unfairly blocking TV Chosun's general programming re-approval through irregular means occurred, none of these things happened. Despite this, simply raising existing suspicions is, in my view, a political offensive," criticizing the previous administration's issues.

Regarding allegations of school violence involving the nominee's child, he said, "The victims of school violence carry physical and mental pain for life, but in this case, the nominee's child and the alleged victim had already reconciled at the time," adding, "Even the homeroom teacher and the parties involved opposed the nominee's son transferring schools. Because of these circumstances, I believe the controversy over school violence involving the nominee's child is not actually school violence."

Immediately after the nomination, the nominee stated, "South Korea also needs a public broadcaster that is internationally trusted and recognized like the BBC or NHK." This has been interpreted as a declaration to move toward a 'one public, many private' broadcasting system. Hong said, "Regarding this approach, the future Chairman of the Korea Communications Commission will need to carefully consider specific matters together with both ruling and opposition parties, especially with many experts," adding, "This issue is not new; previous administrations were aware of the problem but did not attempt it due to concerns about the potential repercussions."

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