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| Ha Sung-min, president of SK Telecom | Hwang Chang-gyu, CEO of KT | Lee Sang-chul, CEO of LG Uplus | Chung Mong-koo, CEO of Hyundai Motor |
By Park Si-soo
Dozens of corporate leaders will face questioning during the upcoming parliamentary audit of government agencies and public companies.
As of Thursday, 55 CEOs and ranking executives were asked by lawmakers to appear at the National Assembly as witnesses.
They included Ha Sung-min, president of SK Telecom; Hwang Chang-gyu, CEO of KT; Lee Sang-chul, CEO of LG Uplus; Chung Mong-koo, chairman of Hyundai Motor; Kim Han-jo, president of Korea Exchange Bank; Yoon Dong-jun, vice president of POSCO; Kang Hyun-gu, CEO of Lotte Homeshopping; Do Sung-hwan, CEO of Home plus; Cha Hwa-yeop, CEO of SK Global Chemical; Kim Chee-hyun, president of Lotte Engineering and Construction; and Hwang Tae-hyun, president of POSCO Engineering and Construction.
The number is expected to rise as lawmakers are allowed to select witness for questioning until Oct. 7. The Assembly will soon send requests for their appearances. By law, those who fail to comply with such requests without a justifiable reason may be prosecuted for contempt and subject to a jail term or fine. Last year, Shinsegae Group Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin was fined 15 million won for ignoring such a request without justifiable reason.
Some CEOs of foreign pharmaceutical companies here are also expected to be summoned for questioning.
Rep. Lee Mok-hee of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy wanted to question 11 chief executive officers of foreign drug companies during the audit, initially scheduled for early September. It was rescheduled to Oct. 7-27 due to a parliamentary standoff over a controversial bill.
"We will push it forward again," a close aide to Lee said. "We are making a list of names we are going to ask for appearance."
He said the questioning, if any, will focus on their clinical tests and corporate social responsibility.
"Foreign pharmaceutical companies have long been criticized for making few contributions to Korea despite growing sales," the aide said.
Those asked to appear last month were Kim Ok-yeon, president of Janssen Korea; Kim Jin-ho, president of GlaxoSmithKline Korea; Lee Dong-soo, country manager of Pfizer Korea; Jung Hae-doh, CEO of Astellas Pharma Korea; Hyun Dong-wook, president of MSD Korea; Brian Gladsden, president of Novartis Korea; Jordan Ter, president of BMS Pharmaceutical Korea; Niels Hessmann, president of Bayer Korea; Liz Chatwin, president of AstraZeneca Korea; Dirk van Niekerk, CEO of Boehringer Ingelheim Korea; and Mike Crichton, general manager of Roche Korea.
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