Talks on spy agency probe mark time

Reps. Jin Sun-mee, left, and Kim Hyun of the main opposition Democratic Party answer reporters’ questions after their press conference at the National Assembly, Wednesday, where they said they have no intention to step down from the Assembly special committee investigating the National Intelligence Service’s (NIS) alleged interference in the presidential election. Hours earlier, the ruling Saenuri Party demanded they leave the committee, claiming they violated the rights of an NIS agent by preventing her from leaving her residence last December. / Yonhap

By Jun Ji-hye

Rival parties Wednesday failed to draw up a plan on how to conduct the National Assembly investigation into the spy agency’s alleged intervention in the Dec. 19 presidential election.

The ruling Saenuri Party argued it will no longer cooperate with the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) unless two DP lawmakers, Kim Hyun and Jin Sun-mee, are excluded from the Assembly’s special committee on the investigation.

The DP claimed that there is no reason for the two lawmakers to be excluded and the ruling party is using a stalling tactic to avoid a thorough investigation.

The ruling party accused Kim and Jin of violating the rights of an agent of the National Intelligence Agency (NIS) while attempting to raid the residence of the agent and preventing her from leaving for more than a day last December.

“The parties’ meeting ended without producing any results. We pushed hard for excluding Kim and Jin from the committee, but the DP rejected our request,” said Rep. Kweon Seong-dong of the ruling party at the press conference.

In response, DP’s Jung Cheong-rae held a separate media conference a few minutes later, saying, “The Saenuri Party seems to have no will to investigate the NIS’s meddling in the presidential election. They seem to be afraid of embarrassing material regarding the case to be disclosed by the two lawmakers.”