ED The nomination trap
Former lawmaker Lee Hye-hoon drinks water during her National Assembly confirmation hearing last week. Yonhap
Transparent candidate selections must be guaranteed
Former lawmaker Lee Hye-hoon and Rep. Kang Sun-woo share a grim fate: Their political careers are at risk after falling from grace at the height of their trajectories.
Lee’s dream of becoming the nation’s first budget minister shattered on Sunday when President Lee Jae Myung withdrew her nomination. An economist-turned-politician, Lee Hye-hoon’s ambitions ultimately revealed an obsession with power. Despite a steady stream of allegations involving herself and her family, the former three-term lawmaker showed no intention of stepping aside voluntarily. Not a single day passed without new accusations emerging after her Cabinet nomination.
Ironically, it’s this persistence that has now driven her to the lowest point of her career. Her refusal to withdraw only prolonged the humiliation, ending with her dismissal after weeks of public scrutiny.
Rep. Kang, now an independent lawmaker, is another politician whose career has been imperiled by a troubled past. A series of allegations surfaced after she was nominated for minister of gender equality and family. Compared with Lee, the accusations against Kang were relatively straightforward. Her ethical lapses and her treatment of staff convinced the public that she was unfit for the post. Kang reportedly treated her aides as personal servants, instructing them to handle private errands on her behalf.
Like Lee, Kang was determined to defend herself during confirmation hearings. But she miscalculated. Her responses to questions about her conduct backfired, reinforcing public perceptions that she lacked the qualifications and judgment required for the position.
There was, however, a difference in how their downfalls unfolded. Lee was removed after the president withdrew her nomination, while Kang chose to resign following the confirmation hearings. Yet the driving force behind both exits was the same: mounting political pressure on their appointer, President Lee.
Kang is now under investigation over allegations that she accepted money in exchange for a nomination. Lee has yet to face a police probe, but some of the accusations against her — if confirmed — could constitute serious legal violations. A law enforcement investigation into her conduct may therefore be inevitable.
Kang is accused of receiving 100 million won from Seoul Metropolitan Council member Kim Kyung in 2022, amounting to over $80,000 at the time, as the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) was selecting candidates for local elections. Kim ultimately secured the nomination. Kang claimed that she returned the money several months later.
The Kang-Kim connection illustrates a vicious cycle of corruption in Korean politics. After Kim won her race, she was accused of leveraging her position to benefit businesses owned or operated by her family members. In 2020, for example, a real estate company owned by her brother was selected as a partner of the Seoul Housing & Urban Development Corp. (SH) for the development of two buildings. The project reportedly generated 28.2 billion won in sales revenue. At the time, Kim served on the city council committee responsible for SH’s budget deliberations. At least seven companies owned or run by Kim’s family members are known to have won Seoul city projects.
This case shows how lucrative the sale of an elected office can be. An aspiring politician allegedly bribes party powerbrokers to secure a nomination. Once in office, they exploit their position to influence decisions that funnel profits to personal or family businesses.
Is Kang the only lawmaker involved in such practices? Probably not. Her case came to light largely because of a leaked, secretly recorded audio file of a conversation with fellow lawmaker Kim Byung-kee. The sale of nominations may be far more widespread, quietly tolerated — or even normalized — within political circles.
A thorough investigation is needed to root out this corruption. As long as elected offices are effectively for sale, democracy cannot function properly. When corruption permeates political parties’ nomination processes, the quality of politics now visible in the National Assembly becomes unavoidably low.
With the June 3 local elections approaching, political parties must ensure transparent and fair candidate selection processes so that figures like Kang and Lee Hye-hoon can be filtered out before they reach positions of power.
Rep. Kang Sun-woo answers questions in front of Mapo Police Station in western Seoul, Jan. 21. Yonhap