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

[Anchor]

The confirmation hearing report for Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won has been adopted under the lead of the Democratic Party. The People Power Party walked out en masse in protest and retaliated by canceling meetings of other standing committees chaired by its lawmakers.

Reporter Kim Kwan-jin reports.

[Reporter]

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

When Committee Chair Seo Young-kyo of the Democratic Party tabled the agenda to adopt the confirmation hearing report for Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won, the People Power Party objected, questioning whether the ruling camp was rushing to pass it before President Lee Jae-myung's press conference without prior agreement, to which the Democratic Party countered that the claim was absurd.

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

[Gwak Gyu-taek / People Power Party lawmaker: "Let's do it, then."]

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

[Gwak Gyu-taek / People Power Party lawmaker: "Go ahead, do it."]

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

[Gwak Gyu-taek / People Power Party lawmaker: "It's all lies!"]

The Democratic Party claimed that the People Power Party was being unreasonable even though no legal violations or flaws were found during the confirmation hearing,

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

while the People Power Party argued that the ruling bloc was pushing through the appointment process to dismiss the indictments in President Lee's ongoing trials.

[Yoon Sang-hyun / People Power Party lawmaker: "Why did the Yoon Suk Yeol administration collapse? The Democratic Party is bound to follow the exact same historical footsteps."]

After the People Power Party lawmakers walked out just 12 minutes into the meeting, only pro-government lawmakers remained to adopt the confirmation report.

The People Power Party responded by canceling the plenary meetings of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee and the Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee, both chaired by its own lawmakers.

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 brought to a halt.

The Strategy and Finance 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 'suitable' rating from the ruling party and an 'unsuitable' rating from the opposition party.

Amid this situation, Yang Soo-jin, who faces allegations of asking nominee Kim Seung-won to solicit favors from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, appeared on a YouTube channel yesterday and claimed the following:

[Yang Soo-jin (YouTube 'Korea Independent Media Network'): "To be honest, I feel guilty toward Lawmaker Kim (Seung-won). Feeling bad about asking for a favor without offering anything, I suggested making a donation at least."]

Controversy continues as it was belatedly revealed that nominee Kim had actually taken on a case before the panel of a judge surnamed Jeong—who had previously dismissed an arrest warrant for a key figure in the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety solicitation allegations—despite stating during the hearing that he had never represented cases before that judicial panel as a lawyer.

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