"Zero Witnesses" Confirmation Hearings: Comparing the Current and Previous Administrations [Fact Check]

[Anchor]

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

How does this compare to the previous administration? Fact Check looks into it. Reporter Lee Gyeong-won is here.

[Reporter]

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

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

[Kim Eui-kyeom / Democratic Party Lawmaker (KBS Radio's 'Special Current Affairs')]: "I don't think (having no witnesses) makes it a toothless hearing. I believe we can sufficiently vet 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 typically face fewer controversies, we analyzed only executive branch candidate hearings.

There were 104 sessions in total.

First, hearings where at least one witness or reference person attended accounted for 36 percent under the previous administration and 26 percent under the current one. While the figure has dropped slightly, both remained in the 20 to 30 percent range.

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

While the percentages might not look vastly different, the actual number of attendees shows a quite significant gap.

During the previous administration, 130 witnesses and reference persons appeared, averaging about two per hearing. In contrast, the current administration averages 0.5 per hearing, a drop to one-fourth of the previous level.

Although a direct comparison is difficult due to differing levels of allegations raised against each candidate, it is statistically confirmed that witnesses and reference persons have sharply decreased under the current administration.

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

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

Proposals emerged to either seat lawmaker Han in place of a People Power Party confirmation committee member or summon him as a hearing witness altogether.

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

However, according to the National Assembly precedent collection, there was a case where a sitting lawmaker appeared as a reference person at a confirmation hearing.

That was in February 2015, during the 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 acted to support the nominee.

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