This week marks the so-called "Super Week of Hearings," during which confirmation hearings for the second-phase appointments of the Lee Jae-myung administration are taking place one after another.
Yesterday, the confirmation hearing for Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won was held, but neither witnesses nor reference witnesses appeared. The same is true for hearings of other nominees. Criticism has persisted, calling them "empty hearings." Following last year, the keyword
"zero witnesses" has once again become a core issue in the hearing landscape
this year.
Political circles have voiced conflicting opinions regarding this issue. First,
Seo Young-kyo, Chair of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee (from the Democratic Party of Korea), defended the nominee at a full committee meeting on September 9, stating, "Conducting hearings without witnesses is common for personnel confirmation hearings."
On the other hand,
People Power Party Representative Joo Jin-woo escalated the offensive during the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice nominee Kim Sung-soo on September 14, stating, "The streak of confirmation hearings with zero witnesses and zero reference witnesses continues, and this is a disgrace to the National Assembly."
To examine what the situation was like in the past,
we analyzed all confirmation hearings conducted under the Lee Jae-myung administration
. Because relying solely on cases from the current administration could make generalization difficult,
we also examined the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, during which the People Power Party was the ruling party and the Democratic Party was the opposition.
The aim was to compare the findings with a situation where the offense and defense were reversed. Since both administrations shared the common factor of the Democratic Party holding an overwhelming majority of nearly 180 seats in the National Assembly, we determined that this served to "control" variables, making the analysis highly effective.
The National Assembly's minutes system organizes personnel confirmation hearing minutes separately, and the official attendees list of witnesses and reference witnesses who took part in each hearing is recorded in these minutes.
We consulted these records.
National Assembly Minutes System (https://record.assembly.go.kr/assembly/mnts/subj/MNT0009.do)
The analysis revealed that a total of 134 confirmation hearings took place: 91 under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration and 43 under the Lee Jae-myung administration prior to the second-phase appointments.
The 134 confirmation hearings are as follows:
From these, hearings for nominees to the judiciary and the National Election Commission—which carry relatively fewer political controversies—were excluded, and
only hearings related to government cabinet appointments were selected. These totaled 104 hearings.
In the cases of hearings for nominees to the judiciary and the National Election Commission, there are few instances where witnesses or reference witnesses appear.
Accordingly, the SBS Fact Check Team analyzed the data based on these 104 cabinet-focused hearings. First,
we examined how many hearings had at least one witness or reference witness present.
Under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, a total of 66 confirmation hearings related to cabinet appointments were held, and among them, 24 hearings had at least one witness or reference witness present, accounting for 36.4% of the total.
Under the Lee Jae-myung administration, witnesses or reference witnesses appeared in 10 out of 38 hearings, or 26.3%.
Although the proportion has dropped slightly under the current administration, in both administrations, hearings with witnesses or reference witnesses present stood at around 20% to 30% of the total.
Unlike parliamentary investigation hearings that center on witnesses and reference witnesses, personnel confirmation hearings were indeed more frequently conducted focusing primarily on the nominee without witnesses or reference witnesses.
However, when looking at the "scale" of witnesses and reference witnesses who attended hearings, the difference was substantial.
In cabinet appointment confirmation hearings under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, a total of 130 witnesses and reference witnesses appeared: 55 witnesses and 75 reference witnesses.
This represents an average of 2.0 people per hearing.
In contrast, a total of 19 people appeared under the Lee Jae-myung administration: 11 witnesses and 8 reference witnesses,
averaging 0.5 people per hearing.
A simple comparison shows that
the scale of witness and reference witness attendance under the current administration has dropped to about one-fourth of that under the previous administration.
While a straightforward comparison by numbers alone is challenging because each nominee carries a different political weight and differing severity in allegations raised, it is a fact that the scale has declined considerably under the Lee Jae-myung administration. During the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, the Democratic Party, which was then the majority party, frequently demanded the attendance of witnesses and reference witnesses aggressively.
Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won attending the confirmation hearing held yesterday
While it is true that 70% to 80% of cabinet nominee confirmation hearings are held without witnesses or reference witnesses, the overall volume of witnesses and reference witnesses has shifted drastically following the change of administration. This suggests that political considerations took precedence over established principles.
In particular, given that the Democratic Party actively pursued the adoption of witnesses and reference witnesses for contentious nominees when it was in the opposition, it is difficult to explain this pattern through the universal framework of a "standard confirmation hearing."
Accordingly, the SBS Fact Check Team rates the claim that "conducting hearings without witnesses is common for personnel confirmation hearings" as "Mostly False."
There is also another contentious point. In the opposition bloc,
the issue of Independent Representative Han Dong-hoon attending the hearing
has come under the spotlight.
Independent Representative Han Dong-hoon explaining allegations regarding nominee Kim Seung-won's lobbying of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety at the National Assembly on September 10.
Representative Han Dong-hoon has actively raised nominee Kim Seung-won's alleged "lobbying of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety over COVID-19 treatments."
Within the People Power Party, arguments emerged that Representative Han should personally vet this issue. Pro-Han lawmaker Woo Jae-joon went as far as urging the party to cancel or suspend the disciplinary action against Independent Representative Han Dong-hoon and deploy him to the confirmation hearing of Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won. After being expelled from the People Power Party in January over the party bulletin board incident, Representative Han had been at odds with the party leadership, and was subsequently elected to the National Assembly as an independent in the June by-election in Buk-gu District A, Busan.
People Power Party Representative Yoon Sang-hyun asserted at the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee plenary meeting on September 9, "Let us adopt Representative Han Dong-hoon, who was the Justice Minister at the time, as a hearing witness." He continued to make similar assertions afterward. However, counterarguments were raised stating that "there is no precedent of having a sitting member of the National Assembly testify as a witness in a confirmation hearing."
To verify this, we consulted the National Assembly Precedents Compendium.
To state the conclusion first,
no precedent of a sitting member of the National Assembly appearing as a hearing witness could be confirmed. However, there has been a case of a sitting lawmaker appearing as a reference witness.
During the 19th National Assembly, at the confirmation hearing for Prime Minister nominee Lee Wan-koo held on February 11, 2015, then-Saenuri Party Representative Kim Dong-wan attended as a reference witness. Former Representative Kim had previously served as vice governor when former Prime Minister Lee was governor of South Chungcheong Province. The context was somewhat different, as his appearance was effectively intended to support the nominee rather than verify allegations against him.
Then-Saenuri Party Representative Kim Dong-wan appearing as a reference witness at the confirmation hearing for then-Prime Minister nominee Lee Wan-koo in February 2015
Witnesses and reference witnesses go through practically identical procedures during the selection process. The National Assembly Precedents Compendium also addresses instances of reference witness appearances under the section regarding "Appearance of Sitting Lawmakers as Witnesses in Confirmation Hearings."
If the intention is to ask whether it is possible for a sitting National Assembly member to appear at a confirmation hearing, or whether a precedent exists, the precedent of a reference witness also needs to be taken into account.
In the end, regarding Representative Han Dong-hoon's attendance at the confirmation hearing, while the statement that "no sitting lawmaker has ever appeared as a witness" is correct, if the intent was that "there is no precedent of a sitting lawmaker appearing at a confirmation hearing," that can be considered inaccurate.
Consequently, the SBS Fact Check Team rates the claim that "no sitting lawmaker has ever appeared as a confirmation hearing witness" as "Half True."
The dispute surrounding "hearings with zero witnesses" is unlikely to conclude with this second round of appointments alone. Similar claims and rebuttals will likely repeat like a treadmill. We hope today's fact check serves as a helpful reference to review historical precedents before political battles unfold.
<References>
· Original post: Remarks by Legislation and Judiciary Committee Chair Seo Young-kyo https://w3.assembly.go.kr/main/player.do?ref=mainsang&menu=30&mc=325&ct1=22&ct2=439&ct3=02&type=&no=&wv=1&
· Original post: Remarks by People Power Party Representative Joo Jin-woo https://w3.assembly.go.kr/main/player.do?menu=97&mc=4IW&ct1=22&ct2=439&ct3=02&wv=1&
· Original post: Remarks by People Power Party Representative Yoon Sang-hyun https://w3.assembly.go.kr/main/player.do?ref=mainsang&menu=30&mc=325&ct1=22&ct2=439&ct3=02&type=&no=&wv=1&
· Original post: Remarks by People Power Party Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sik https://news.sbs.co.kr/news/endPage.do?news_id=N1008745401&plink=TOTAL&cooper=SBSNEWSSEARCH
· National Assembly Minutes System (Confirmation Hearing Minutes): https://record.assembly.go.kr/assembly/mnts/subj/MNT0009.do
· SBS Fact Check Team's Independent Analysis of National Assembly Confirmation Hearing Minutes: Attached as images in the article above
· National Assembly Precedents Compendium: https://k-knowledge.kr/srch/read.jsp?id=257766079
(Writer: Kim Hyo-jin, Intern: Kim Jeong-won)
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