President Yoon Approves Appointment of Lee Dong-gwan... Ruling Party "Right Person" vs Opposition "Cannot Accept"

People Power Party "Opposition raises baseless suspicions at the hearing"
Democratic Party "Insists on appointment... 16th National Assembly bypassed personnel"

President Yoon Suk-yeol's approval of the appointment of Lee Dong-gwan as the nominee for the Chairperson of the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) has elicited polar opposite reactions from the ruling and opposition parties. The People Power Party (PPP) praised Lee as the "right person to normalize the biased public broadcasting," while the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) strongly opposed, stating that they "cannot recognize him as the Chairperson of the KCC."

Yoo Sang-beom, senior spokesperson for the PPP, said in a statement on the 25th, "The nominee has accumulated extensive experience in the media field over a long period and served as the Blue House spokesperson, demonstrating a high level of understanding of overall media policy. Moreover, he is the right person to restore the independence and fairness of the media by normalizing the biased public broadcasting," adding, "He must carry out the mission entrusted by the people swiftly and without hesitation."

Regarding the confirmation hearing, Yoo criticized, "From before the start of the hearing, the DPK focused on derailing the nominee by making personal attacks, digging into his background, and indiscriminate criticism. Even after the hearing ended, they repeated baseless allegations with nothing new," and added, "For the DPK, verifying Lee Dong-gwan’s competence and qualifications was never a consideration from the beginning."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

He explained, "President Yoon requested the National Assembly to resend the confirmation report on the 22nd, but the report was not adopted by the deadline of the 24th," and continued, "Since the position of the Chairperson of the KCC, entrusted with the critical mission of ensuring fairness and independence in broadcasting, cannot remain vacant indefinitely, the decision to appoint had to be made."

The DPK strongly opposed both President Yoon and Lee Dong-gwan. Kim Han-gyu, the DPK floor spokesperson, said, "President Yoon has ultimately appointed Lee as the Chairperson of the KCC," and added, "With Lee’s appointment, President Yoon’s true intention to create broadcasting and media that praise the regime instead of fair broadcasting has been exposed."

Regarding the confirmation hearing, Kim criticized, "During the hearing process, the function of the National Assembly to verify appointments was nullified, signaling the start of ‘administrative dictatorship.’ The President, using the ruling party that has become his rubber stamp, undermined the confirmation hearing and drove the plenary session into chaos, ultimately producing the 16th appointment without parliamentary consent in just one year and three months of his term," he pointed out.

Members of the DPK’s Science, Technology, Information and Communications Committee stated, "Despite numerous reasons for disqualification, including his own media suppression, his son’s school violence, covering up his spouse’s school violence, his spouse’s personnel recommendation requests, and his family’s tax evasion on gift taxes, Lee Dong-gwan consistently responded with ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I don’t remember.’" They added, "The National Assembly rejects Lee Dong-gwan as the Chairperson of the KCC, who was unilaterally appointed without resolving numerous suspicions and without adopting the confirmation report. We cannot recognize him as the Chairperson of the KCC."

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