Confirmation Report on Justice Minister Nominee Kim Seung-won Adopted Unilaterally; PPP Retaliates by Canceling Committee Meetings

[Anchor]

The personnel confirmation report for Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won has been adopted under the leadership of the Democratic Party. The People Power Party protested with a collective walkout and retaliated by canceling plenary meetings of other standing committees chaired by its lawmakers.

Kim Kwan-jin has our first report.

[Reporter]

This morning (September 17), at the plenary meeting of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee.

When Committee Chair Seo Young-kyo, a Democratic Party lawmaker, tabled the motion to adopt the confirmation report on Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won, the People Power Party questioned whether the ruling bloc was rushing the process ahead of President Lee Jae-myung's press conference tomorrow, arguing there had been no prior agreement. The Democratic Party pushed back, calling the claim absurd.

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee (Democratic Party Lawmaker): "Do you want to take a lie detector test together?"]

[Kwak Kyu-taek / People Power Party Lawmaker: "Let's do it, then."]

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee (Democratic Party Lawmaker): "Let's do it."]

[Kwak Kyu-taek / People Power Party Lawmaker: "Go ahead, do it."]

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee (Democratic Party Lawmaker): "You are talking nonsense!"]

[Kwak Kyu-taek / People Power Party Lawmaker: "It is all lies!"]

The Democratic Party asserted that the People Power Party was being unreasonable even though no illegalities or flaws were uncovered during the confirmation hearing.

[Kim Eui-kyeom / Democratic Party Lawmaker: "I believe the public will understand that reaching a compromise is not easy in this situation."]

The People Power Party claimed that the ruling bloc was pushing through the appointment process to have the indictments in President Lee's trials dropped.

[Yoon Sang-hyun / People Power Party Lawmaker: "Why did the Yoon Suk Yeol administration collapse? The Democratic Party has no choice but to follow the exact same historical footsteps."]

After People Power Party lawmakers walked out just 12 minutes into the meeting, only lawmakers aligned with the ruling bloc remained to adopt the confirmation report.

The People Power Party launched a countermeasure by canceling plenary meetings of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee and the Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee, both chaired by its members.

Discussions in the two committees on adopting confirmation reports for Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister nominee Hong Ji-seon and SMEs and Startups Minister nominee Lee So-young were halted.

The Economy and Finance Planning Committee, chaired by a Democratic Party lawmaker, adopted the confirmation report for Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance nominee Lee Hyoung-il, attaching a favorable opinion from the ruling party and an unfavorable opinion from the opposition party.

Amid this, Yang Soo-jin, who is suspected of asking nominee Kim Seung-won to solicit favors from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, appeared on a YouTube channel today and made the following claim:

[Yang Soo-jin (YouTube 'Korea Independent Media Network'): "To be honest, I feel guilty toward Representative Kim (Seung-won). Since it felt awkward to simply ask for a favor, I suggested making a donation instead."]

Controversy continues, as nominee Kim stated during his hearing that he had never represented a case before the judicial panel that included Judge Jeong, who had rejected an arrest warrant for a key figure in the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety solicitation allegations, but it was belatedly revealed that he had actually taken on one such case.

(Video by Oh Young-choon, Shin Dong-hwan, Kim Yong-woo | Video Editing by Jeon Min-gyu | Graphics by Kang Yoon-jung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.