Chairman of the Public Office Committee of the Opposition Party: "I personally dismissed Park Yong-jin's retrial... Releasing the evaluation violates party rules"

Im Hyuk-baek "Cannot disclose evaluation details"
"Decision made after thoroughly reviewing the explanation materials"

Im Hyuk-baek, the Chair of the Democratic Party's Nomination Management Committee, on the 23rd rejected the demand to allow the lower-ranked incumbent lawmakers to check their evaluation details, stating, "Disclosing the evaluation contents of incumbent lawmakers is against party regulations."

Chair Im made this remark in response to a question about the dismissal of Rep. Park Yong-jin's reconsideration immediately after the announcement of the 6th nomination results on the morning of the 23rd. He explained, "The dismissal was made through a legitimate procedure," adding, "The Evaluation Committee assessed the lawmakers for about six months starting from July last year, and then at the 2nd full meeting of the Nomination Management Committee, all processing including notification and dismissal was delegated to me as the chair." He continued, "I made the dismissal decision alone, and when I contact the Secretariat of the Nomination Management Committee, the Secretariat notifies the lawmakers who filed objections," emphasizing, "There is no procedural defect."

Lim Hyuk-baek, the Chair of the Nomination Management Committee of the Democratic Party of Korea, is announcing the results of the candidate screening on the morning of the 23rd at the central party office in Yeouido, Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]

He further stated, "I was informed by the Evaluation Committee that I cannot disclose the objections and evaluation contents," and added, "Even if some lawmakers in the bottom 20% view the evaluation contents, disclosing them would violate party regulations." Moreover, he asserted the legitimacy of the procedure by saying, "According to Article 75 of Party Regulation No. 10, the evaluation contents cannot be disclosed in any form."

After Chair Im left, Nomination Committee member Park Byung-young responded to reporters' questions regarding Park Yong-jin's reconsideration by saying, "I understand that the Chair thoroughly reviewed the explanations submitted by the lawmakers who requested reconsideration." He said, "The lawmakers also provided explanations in writing to the Chair. Those with many details submitted about 7 to 8 pages of A4-sized documents, while those with fewer details submitted 4 to 5 pages." However, he did not answer when asked whether the Chair reviewed the evaluation contents from the Evaluation Committee.

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