Ruling and Opposition Disagree... Adoption of Hearing Report on Candidate Lee Jin-suk for KCC Chairperson Deferred

與 "Jeokgyeok·Bujeokgyeok Uigyeon Byeonggihae Jesulhaeya"
Ya "Beobin Kadeu Yuyong, Yeoksagwan Simgakhan Heumgyeol"

The adoption of the National Assembly personnel hearing progress report on candidate Lee Jin-sook for the Chairperson of the Korea Communications Commission was postponed due to disagreements between the ruling and opposition parties.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The National Assembly Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee held a plenary meeting on the 29th to discuss the adoption of the hearing progress report on candidate Lee, but the adoption was not completed within the deadline. According to the Personnel Hearing Act, the National Assembly was required to complete and send the hearing report to the government by the 20th day from the date the hearing request was submitted. President Yoon Seok-yeol’s request for a hearing on candidate Lee was sent to the National Assembly on the 9th.

If the hearing report is not adopted within the deadline in the National Assembly, the President may request the resubmission of the hearing report within a period of 10 days. During the meeting, ruling and opposition party hearing committee members gave contrasting evaluations of the hearing on candidate Lee held over three days from the 24th and the opposition party’s solo on-site verification at Daejeon MBC on the 27th.

Choi Hyung-doo, the ruling party’s secretary of the Science and ICT Committee and a member of the People Power Party, responded to the opposition party’s continued criticism of candidate Lee by saying, “Following the three-day ‘endurance test,’ it now seems like a contest to see how harshly a public office candidate can be slandered and personally attacked,” and argued, “It is the duty of the National Assembly to submit the hearing report to the appointing authority (the President) with both the suitability opinion and the disqualification reasons claimed by opposition members.”

Park Jung-hoon, also from the same party, said, “The Democratic Party pushed for the impeachment of two previous chairpersons, so who would want to come to this position?” and added, “I focused on how the candidate could withstand the opposition’s offensive and humiliation, and it seems he can.” Choi Soo-jin also emphasized, “Candidate Lee has 30 years of expertise as a journalist and sincerely participated in the unprecedented three-day hearing,” and stated, “He is a suitable figure to normalize public broadcasting.”

On the other hand, opposition party members argued that candidate Lee has serious flaws in his historical perspective regarding allegations of union suppression during his tenure as head of MBC’s news department, misuse of corporate credit cards during his presidency at Daejeon MBC, and issues related to the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement and Japanese military comfort women, and insisted that the hearing report should not even be adopted. Lee Hoon-gi of the Democratic Party said, “As the head of MBC’s news department, he was the top person responsible for the false report of ‘all rescued’ during the Sewol ferry disaster and repeatedly distorted coverage related to the disaster. Having such a candidate as the Chairperson of the Korea Communications Commission would be a global laughingstock,” and emphasized, “Especially, the allegation of corporate card misuse is a matter that should be investigated.”

Choi Min-hee, a member of the Science and ICT Committee from the same party, regarding her comment during the hearing that candidate Lee’s brain structure is abnormal, said, “Despite any criticism and expected oppression, I will maintain my judgment and statement that candidate Lee’s brain structure is abnormal.” Lee Jun-seok of the Reform New Party pointed out, “I tried to judge candidate Lee’s policy capability and morality with as little prejudice as possible, but his answers during the hearing were very insincere, and his solutions for regional broadcasting promotion were limited to general statements.”

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