Clash Over 'Exclusion of Lee Jin-sook' Disrupts Parliamentary Audit of Science and Broadcasting Committee

[Anchor]

Today (October 16), the parliamentary audit by the National Assembly's Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee was disrupted as the ruling and opposition parties clashed over the "recusal of People Power Party Lawmaker Lee Jin-sook," which was previously approved by the Democratic Party of Korea. The Democratic Party argued that having Lawmaker Lee, who served as head of the Korea Communications Commission under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, conduct an audit of public broadcasters constitutes a conflict of interest, while the People Power Party countered that it infringes on a lawmaker's right to question.

Reporter Kim Bo-mi reports.

[Reporter]

A parliamentary audit by the National Assembly's Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee targeting KBS and the Foundation for Broadcast Culture, the majority shareholder of MBC.

From the very start, proceedings were derailed over the issue of People Power Party Lawmaker Lee Jin-sook's participation in the audit.

[Lee Ju-hee / Democratic Party Lawmaker: We need to audit whether the hasty resolutions (under the KCC's two-member structure), which the courts have repeatedly ruled illegal, brought down public broadcasting, yet the very person who made those decisions is...]

[Lee Jin-sook / People Power Party Lawmaker: It was the Democratic Party-led National Assembly that created the two-member system.]

On October 12, the Democratic Party passed a recusal motion to exclude Lawmaker Lee from the audit, arguing that it is a conflict of interest for her—having served as the chair of the Korea Communications Commission under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration—to take part in auditing pending broadcasting issues concerning public broadcasters and others.

The opposition argues it is unfair for Lawmaker Lee, who was involved in appointing board members of public broadcasters under the highly controversial "two-member KCC structure," to conduct a self-audit on related issues during this parliamentary inspection.

[Song Ki-hun / Chair of the National Assembly Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee: Unless other circumstances arise, I will not give the floor to Lawmaker Lee Jin-sook today.]

[Lee Jin-sook / People Power Party Lawmaker: I say once again, this is "majority violence, majority tyranny, and majority dictatorship."]

The People Power Party defended Lawmaker Lee, claiming that the Democratic Party is arbitrarily judging what constitutes a conflict of interest.

[Choi Hyung-du / People Power Party Lawmaker: Even though the majority party passed such a resolution, there is no way to prevent Committee Member Lee Jin-sook from participating in this meeting. Nor should she be blocked.]

The controversy over the "exclusion of Lawmaker Lee Jin-sook from the parliamentary audit" is expected to flare up again on October 22 during the comprehensive audit of the Broadcasting and Media Communications Commission.

(Video by Lee Seung-hwan and Shin Dong-hwan | Video Editing by Lee Seung-jin)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.