Shouting, Verbal Abuse, and Race for 'Shorts': Policy Scrutiny Sidelined

[Anchor]

This year's parliamentary audit, which wrapped up yesterday (October 30), is drawing criticism that policy scrutiny was sidelined amid shouting, verbal abuse, and a fierce race for social media "shorts." Starting next week, formal budget deliberations will begin, with another clash expected between the ruling and opposition parties.

Reporter Jeon Yeon-nam reports.

[Reporter]

During the parliamentary audit of Gyeonggi Province, Governor Choo Mi-ae made a remark about a "straw":

[Choo Mi-ae / Gyeonggi Province Governor (October 13): "Firefighting services seem to be the biggest and most troublesome fiscal straw."]

Just as the issue seemed to quiet down, a Democratic Party lawmaker's defending remarks only escalated the controversy.

[Boo Seung-chan / Democratic Party Lawmaker (October 19): "Aren't they really sucking up government funds?"]

The Legislation and Judiciary Committee, which saw an influx of lawmakers' shorts, resembled a contest of verbal abuse.

[Kwak Kyu-taek / People Power Party Lawmaker (October 8): "They ordered 18 servings of meat. Shouldn't people eat one serving each? One person ate six servings!"]

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of Legislation and Judiciary Committee (Democratic Party Lawmaker, October 8): "Isn't this turning into a personal attack?"]

The commotion even spilled out beyond the audit room.

[Joo Jin-woo / People Power Party Lawmaker (October 26): "Why did you hold so many strategy meetings without any aides present?"]

[Seo Young-kyo / Democratic Party Lawmaker (October 26): "Oh Sehun was acquitted, does that make any sense!"]

The word that surfaced the most during the audit of the Ministry of Unification was undeniably "landmine."

[Han Dong-hoon / Independent Lawmaker (October 27): "If I secretly sneak in and plant a landmine in front of Minister Chung's house, isn't that Han Dong-hoon's landmine attack?"]

A mock landmine even appeared.

[Park Choong-kwon / People Power Party Lawmaker (October 27): "I would like to place a North Korean landmine in front of Minister Chung Dong-young. Would you allow that?"]

[Chung Dong-young / Minister of Unification (October 27): "A parliamentary audit is supposed to be a serious debate on state affairs..."]

A civic group gave this year's parliamentary audit a failing grade of "F."

The group cited reasons including that lawmakers focused on scrutinizing the qualifications of rival politicians rather than vetting policies.

It was found that heads of 245 audited agencies—accounting for about 31 percent of all inspected organizations—did not receive a single question during the audit.

Starting next week, the political battle over the budget will begin in earnest.

Clashes between the ruling and opposition parties are expected over the 820 trillion won budget proposal, particularly the 162 trillion won future response fund that utilizes surplus tax revenue from semiconductors.

(Camera: Oh Young-choon and Kim Yong-woo | Video Editing: Yoo Mi-ra)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.