Kang Seung-woo is the Business Desk editor at The Korea Times. Prior to this position, he covered politics, national affairs, finance and sports.
Assembly audit lacks key witnesses with main opposition remaining powerless
The Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee holds a parliamentary audit of the foreign ministry at the National Assembly in Seoul, Wednesday. The committee proceed without any witness due to the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's rejection. / Yonhap
By Kang Seung-woo
By Kang Seung-woo
The annual National Assembly audit of government ministries and agencies has been disrupted since Wednesday, the day it started, as the main opposition party's attempts to summon key witnesses for issues unfavorable to the ruling party have been blocked by the latter, which holds the majority of seats on the relevant committees.
Although there are pending focal issues that have been spawning public speculation such as an alleged preferential treatment of the justice minster's son's military service and the killing of a South Korean government official by North Korea, no witnesses related to the cases appeared for the relevant standing committees' audits, once again raising questions over the efficiency of the parliamentary inspection.
The selection of witnesses is made based on bipartisan agreement or majority decision, but with the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) having a super majority in the Assembly ― 174 seats out of 300 ― and most seats on the standing committees, the main opposition People Power Party's (PPP) calls for key witnesses to testify have not been accepted. The PPP has only 103 lawmakers in the 21st National Assembly.
Entering the audit, the ruling and opposition parties were expected to lock horns with each other over whether Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae exerted her influence on the military to get extended leave for her son following knee surgery during his mandatory service in 2017. At the time, Choo was chairwoman of the DPK.
The PPP demanded that the Defense Committee summon 20 witnesses involved in the allegations, but the DPK rejected the request, saying that the prosecution had already withdrawn charges against Choo, her son, a former aide and a former military officer, all of whom faced accusations of collusion.
Some witnesses were willing to appear and testify at the audit, but the DPK did not allow them to do so.
“The PPP's request for witnesses was not endorsed, meaning that the ruling party is exploiting its majority position to deprive the opposition side's right to audit the government,” Rep. Chang Je-won of the PPP said.
Rep. Park Beom-kye of the DPK responded, saying despite the prosecution's clearance, a whistleblower plans to file an additional charge against Choo and it is not allowed to summon a witness for a finished or ongoing case.
At the audit by the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, the opposition party wanted to summon 33 witnesses regarding the allegations against Choo, but none were allowed.
A similar case occurred at the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee as the PPP planned to call in a brother of a government official who was shot dead by the North last month to testify, but the DPK said the government and the bereaved family remain apart on whether the official was defecting to the North, so the brother's claim may cause further confusion on the issue. The inspection of the committee proceeded with no witnesses.
PPP floor leader Rep. Joo Ho-young said the DPK refusal to accept witnesses infringes on the public's right to transparency and incapacitates the parliamentary audit.
“The ruling party even refuses to accept people who expressed a willingness to appear as witnesses. This is abusing the audit system,” he said in a party meeting.