The National Assembly's National Defense Committee on Thursday (September 17) adopted a confirmation hearing report for Defense Minister nominee Kang Shin-chul, led by the ruling party. 

The defense committee convened a plenary meeting on the day and passed the confirmation hearing report led by the Democratic Party of Korea. 

The People Power Party boycotted the meeting, stating that it could not agree to Kang's appointment. 

Representative Kim Byung-joo, the ruling party's ranking member on the committee, urged the adoption of the report, saying, "The nominee demonstrated a very strong commitment to various reform tasks pursued by the Lee Jae-myung administration, including the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON), the issue of an integrated military academy, and a selective volunteer military system in response to a declining troop supply." 

He added, "We judged that the nominee possesses a very high level of competence and policy understanding as minister, and having served as Deputy Commander of the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command, he is the candidate best suited to manage the South Korea-U.S. alliance." 

Representative Lim Jong-deuk, the People Power Party's ranking member on the defense committee, protested during a point of order, saying, "While preparing for the hearing, the ruling party did not approve a single witness or reference person requested by us, which caused serious problems." 

He further noted that the nominee avoided answering or claimed not to know about allegations surrounding his son's commercial real estate purchase, pointing out, "If even the vetting agencies were genuinely unaware, it is a failure of the presidential office's personnel vetting process." 

Representative Lim walked out of the meeting room following his remarks.

Representative Chun Ha-ram of the New Reform Party also boycotted the vote, citing reasons such as criticism regarding Kang's demeanor during questioning not being adequately reflected in the report.