State audit agency urges opposition to withdraw impeachment of its chief
Secretary general of the Board of Audit and Inspection Choi Dal-young speaks during a press conference at the Board of Audit and Inspection in Jongno District, Seoul. Dec. 2. Yonhap
The state audit agency urged the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea on Monday to halt its planned impeachment of the agency chief over issues related to the relocation of the presidential office.
Choi Dal-young, secretary general of the Board of Audit and Inspection, issued the appeal hours before the party was to introduce an impeachment motion against BAI Chair Choe Jae-hae at a plenary session of the National Assembly.
"I understand the main grounds for the impeachment are that the BAI is carrying out targeted inspections of the previous administration while letting off the current administration through its inspections," Choi said during a press briefing at the BAI headquarters. "We are inspecting the current administration's work strictly and fairly under the same standards."
The DPK has pushed for Choe's impeachment, citing various issues with the BAI's audit of suspected irregularities in the presidential office relocation carried out in 2022 in line with a campaign pledge of President Yoon Suk Yeol, as well as Choe's refusal to submit related documents for a parliamentary audit.
"We earnestly plead with you to immediately stop the impeachment attempt against the chair of the Board of Audit and Inspection, who is the chief of a constitutionally independent body," Choi said. (Yonhap)