By Jun Ji-hye
The National Assembly Special Committee decided Thursday when to receive reports from related institutes about allegations that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) had intervened in the Dec. 19 presidential elections.
Following an agreement between the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), the committee will listen to reports from the Ministry of Justice on July 24, the National Police Agency on July 25 and the NIS on July 26.
Some DP members complained about the briefing order of the institutions, saying putting the justice ministry first is a Saenuri tactic to prevent the NIS from being intensively scrutinized.
“Although the core issue of the investigation is NIS’s election meddling, it will give a report of situations at the last among three organizations, while the justice ministry is placed first,” said Rep. Park Beom-kye of the DP.
Park claimed it seems like the ruling party wants to give more prominence to the case that they accused DP lawmakers last December of violating the rights of an NIS agent by attempting to raid the agent’s residence and preventing her from leaving it for more than a day.
The DP also demanded that NIS’s report be made open to the media. Under the Assembly Law, whether to carry out the session behind closed doors or to open it to the media can be decided through an agreement between the vice chairmen.
“NIS’s report session must go public as the meaning of the Assembly investigation is to tell the public the truth about the incident,” said DP lawmaker Park Young-sun.