A "Zero-Witness" Hearing... Comparing It With the Past Government [In Fact]

[Anchor]

The confirmation hearings to verify the second-term cabinet appointments of the Lee Jae-myung administration are likely to proceed without any witnesses or reference witnesses. The opposition party has criticized this as a toothless hearing and a disgrace to the National Assembly.

How does this compare to the past government? Fact Check "In Fact" with reporter Lee Gyeong-won.

[Reporter]

Confirmation hearings without witnesses or reference witnesses have come under fire once again this year, following last year's cabinet appointments.

[Joo Jin-woo / People Power Party Lawmaker: We continue to record zero witnesses and reference witnesses. I believe this is a disgrace to the National Assembly.]

[Kim Eui-kyeom / Democratic Party Lawmaker (KBS Radio 'Jeong-geuk Sisa'): I don't think it becomes a toothless hearing just because there are no witnesses. I believe sufficient verification can be made 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 have relatively fewer points of contention, we analyzed only the executive branch candidate hearings.

There were a total of 104 sessions.

First, hearings where at least one witness or reference witness attended accounted for 36 percent under the past government and 26 percent under the current government. While the figures dropped slightly, both remained at the 20 to 30 percent level.

In both administrations, the majority of hearings were held without any witnesses or reference witnesses.

Looking only 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 government, 130 witnesses and reference witnesses appeared, averaging about two per hearing, whereas the current government has seen an average of 0.5, a drop to one-fourth of that level.

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 launch of the current government.

Both administrations share the commonality that the Democratic Party holds an overwhelming majority.

Another issue of contention is the participation of independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon in the confirmation hearing for Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won.

Suggestions emerged to replace a People Power Party confirmation committee seat with Lawmaker Han, or to summon him as a hearing witness altogether.

For one, there is no precedent of replacing a specific party's confirmation hearing committee member with an independent lawmaker.

However, according to the National Assembly's collection of precedents, there have been cases where a serving lawmaker appeared as a reference witness for 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 the vice governor when the former Prime Minister was the governor of South Chungcheong Province, and he played a role in supporting the nominee.

(Video Editing: Lee So-young, Design: Lee Ga-jin, VJ: Kim Jun-ho)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.