[Anchor]
Confirmation hearings to verify the second-term cabinet appointments of the Lee Jae-myung administration are highly likely to proceed without any witnesses or reference witnesses. The opposition party has criticized this as a "watered-down hearing" and a "disgrace to the National Assembly."
How does this compare to the past administration? Let's check the facts with reporter Lee Gyeong-won.
[Reporter]
Confirmation hearings without witnesses or reference witnesses have once again come under fire, following last year's cabinet appointments.
[Joo Jin-woo / People Power Party Lawmaker: We continue to record zero witnesses and reference witnesses. I think this is a disgrace to the National Assembly.]
[Kim Eui-kyeom / Democratic Party Lawmaker (KBS Radio 'Jeon-geuk Sisa'): I don't think (having no witnesses) makes it a watered-down hearing. I believe we can sufficiently verify candidates through the questioning on that day....]
We compared the confirmation hearings under the Yoon Suk Yeol and Lee Jae-myung administrations.
Excluding judicial and election commission candidates, who face relatively fewer contentious issues, we analyzed only executive branch candidate hearings.
There were a total of 104 sessions.
First, hearings where even a single witness or reference witness attended accounted for 36% under the past administration and 26% under the current administration. While the figure has dropped somewhat, both remained in the 20 to 30 percent range.
In both administrations, hearings held without any witnesses or reference witnesses were more common.
Looking solely at the percentages, the difference does not seem significant, but when looking at the actual number of attendees, the gap is quite large.
During the past administration, 130 witnesses and reference witnesses appeared, averaging about two people per hearing. For the current administration, that number has dropped to an average of 0.5 people, a fourfold decrease.
While a direct comparison is difficult because the level of allegations raised against each candidate varies, it is statistically confirmed that witnesses and reference witnesses have decreased significantly since the current government took office.
Both administrations share the commonality that the Democratic Party holds an overwhelming majority.
Another point of contention is the issue of independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon participating in the confirmation hearing for Minister of Justice nominee Kim Seung-won.
Arguments arose to either put lawmaker Han in a People Power Party hearing committee seat or to summon him as a witness to the hearing altogether.
First of all, there is no precedent of replacing a specific party's confirmation hearing committee member with an independent lawmaker.
However, according to the National Assembly precedent collection, there have been cases where a sitting lawmaker appeared as a reference witness at a confirmation hearing.
That was in February 2015, during the confirmation hearing for then-Prime Minister nominee Lee Wan-koo, featuring then-Saenuri Party lawmaker Kim Dong-wan.
Lawmaker Kim had served as vice governor when former Prime Minister Lee was South Chungcheong Province Governor, and he played a supporting role for the candidate.
(Video Editing: Lee So-young, Design: Lee Ga-jin, VJ: Kim Jun-ho, Writer: Kim Hyo-jin, Intern: Kim Jeong-won)
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