[Anchor]

Defense Minister nominee Kang Shin-chul offered hard-to-understand explanations during his confirmation hearing regarding allegations surrounding his real estate and the controversy over his son's commercial property. Nominee Kang's confirmation hearing report was also adopted solely by the ruling party just one day after the hearing concluded.

Reporter Park Chan-beom reports.

[Reporter]

The confirmation hearing for Defense Minister nominee Kang Shin-chul ended at around 11:10 p.m. Wednesday night (September 16).

Nominee Kang, who faces allegations of having registered a false address in 2008 to receive a "special housing supply for evicted residents" tied to a house he owned in Cheonwang-dong, Guro-gu, Seoul, insisted near the close of the hearing:

[Kang Shin-chul / Defense Minister Nominee (Wednesday): "In terms of market value, it is truly an unspeakable loss."]

He argued that the compensation amounted to only one-sixth of the market price in Cheonwang-dong, but in exchange for the expropriation of the Cheonwang-dong house, he acquired an apartment in Umyeon-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, through the "special supply for evicted residents."

[Cheon Ha-ram / Reform Party Lawmaker (Wednesday): "Didn't the home you were allocated as an evicted resident, which you bought for 520 million won, end up being worth 2.2 billion won?"]

Nominee Kang protested, calling it a "speculator frame."

[Kang Shin-chul / Defense Minister Nominee (Wednesday): "You just put a frame on us and made all of us out to be real estate speculators, didn't you?"]

Nominee Kang answered that he did not know his son had purchased a commercial property last June by borrowing over 700 million won from his aunt and uncle, citing the "war" as the reason.

[Seong Il-jong / People Power Party Lawmaker (Wednesday): "They lent 700 million won, and neither his aunt nor your children said a word about it?"]

[Kang Shin-chul / Defense Minister Nominee (Wednesday): "Because I was in a situation involving war..."]

In effect, he claimed he did not know because he was serving as ambassador to Saudi Arabia, a country neighboring Iran, amid the U.S.-Iran war.

Both his claim of "not knowing" that his sister-in-law and her husband lent 700 million won to his son, and his excuse that omitting his son's commercial property from hearing materials was his own "oversight that occurred on the way back home," are drawing criticism.

[Lim Jong-deuk / People Power Party Lawmaker (Wednesday): "If your son is vetted, the 700 million won commercial property purchase is bound to come up. Didn't you get a call (from Cheong Wa Dae)?"]

A sharp war of words erupted between ruling and opposition lawmakers.

[Park Sun-won / Democratic Party Lawmaker (Wednesday): "It seems (Reform Party Lawmaker Cheon Ha-ram) lacks social experience and doesn't know, so you should just say, 'This seems to be a case I'm not familiar with.'"]

[Cheon Ha-ram / Reform Party Lawmaker: "I have had plenty of social experience myself. I should receive an apology."]

Yesterday, just one day after the hearing ended, the National Assembly's National Defense Committee—chaired by a ruling party lawmaker—adopted the confirmation hearing report solely with the ruling party.

The ruling party called him the "right person for defense reform," but the opposition party boycotted the vote and walked out, calling it "a failing grade of lacking conviction and competence."

(Video by Lee Seung-hwan and Shin Dong-hwan | Video Editing by Won Hyeong-hee)