Jun Ji-hye, a reporter at the finance desk of The Korea Times, focuses primarily on economic policy and government agencies, mainly covering the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Ministry of Budget and Planning, the National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service. She previously covered financial authorities, including the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, and earlier worked on the political, city and business desks, reporting on a wide range of issues.
Assembly investigation efficacy questioned
Rep. Lee Un-ju of the main opposition Democratic Party, a member of the National Assembly investigation task force on the closure of Jinju Medical Center (JMC), speaks during an on-site inspection at the JMC in South Gyeongsang Province, Thursday. The general hospital funded by the provincial administration was shut down in May due to its accumulated deficits. / Yonhap
By Jun Ji-hye
By Jun Ji-hye
The National Assembly is conducting investigations into meddling by the spy agency in last year’s presidential election and the closure of Jinju Medical Center (JMC).
It is the first time in the Assembly’s history that two investigations are simultaneously underway, and more notably, the investigation of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) is unprecedented.
However, experts are pessimistic about the outcome of the two probes.
Political analyst Lee Kang-yun described them as a “waste of time and energy.”
“The rival parties sometimes abuse their right to investigate as a means of pursuing political power games. Their investigations fail to produce satisfactory results and fail to meet public expectations that they will dig out truths that would otherwise remain buried,” said Lee.
Since 1987 when the investigative power of parliament was revived, a total of 21 investigations have been conducted.
Of that number, lawmakers produced eight results in joint reports on a variety of matters.
These mostly involved issues in which there was no sharp conflict between the two sides such as the collapse of the Sampoong Department Store in 1995 and the death of Kim Sun-il in 2004. Kim, an employee of a logistics company contracted to support the U.S. military in Iraq, was kidnapped and killed by an armed group in Iraq.
However, in most other cases, lawmakers failed to reach agreement to produce reports on their findings on such sensitive issues as the resumption of U.S. beef import during the Lee Myung-bak administration.
Without a joint report, all activities the parliamentary investigation task force (TF) undertakes become futile.
Experts say that as with previous cases, there is a great possibility that the ongoing parliamentary investigation into the spy agency will be nothing more than a bickering forum for lawmakers.
“The two parties have been belaboring the weak points of their opponents regarding the NIS’s intervention in the presidential election. They will likely do the same in the investigation, which lowers expectations that they will complete the investigation with constructive suggestions,” said Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myungji University.
The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) argues that the Park Geun-hye administration lacks legitimacy due to the NIS’s meddling in the election, while the ruling party says that the DP violated the rights of an NIS agent by preventing the agent from leaving her home for more than a day.
Critics also take issue with the limited authority of the parliamentary investigation.
“The Assembly investigation is banned from invading the independence of the judiciary, which means lawmakers do not have investigational rights such as account tracking. There definitely are limits o on the scope of the investigation,” said Political analyst Lee Kang-yun.
He added that some lawmakers use parliamentary investigations as a means of gaining publicity by making propagandist comments.
In addition, even after parties successfully make a joint report containing the investigation results and their proposals, this does not mean that there will be immediate legislation enacted or corrective measures because the report has to be put to a vote in a plenary session.
If approved, this goes to the government or relevant organizations in accordance with Assembly’s requirements, if not, the TF’s labor amounts to nothing.