Tough hearing awaits PM nominee
Opposition party says nominee unfit for the crucial job
By Do Je-hae
Prime Minister nominee Hwang Kyo-ahn gets out of his car at the government complex building in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province Friday. / Yonhap
The main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) has criticized President Park Geun-hye’s nomination of prosecutor-turned-minister Hwang Kyo-ahn for prime minister, calling it “flawed” and “a declaration of war” against the opposition.
The reaction signaled a rocky parliamentary hearing for Hwang.
The NPAD sees the justice minister as a candidate unfit for the crucial job to lead an anti-corruption drive which is President Park’s key policy initiative following a series of high-profile bribery scandals.
NPAD lawmakers said Friday that Hwang will find it much harder to pass the confirmation hearing and the parliamentary screening will be much more thorough than what he experienced in 2013 when he was selected as justice minister.
"There were some issues that we failed to properly address in the previous hearing," NPAD Rep. Park Young-sun said in a radio interview.
In an interview with YTN, NPAD Rep. Sul Hoon said that Hwang was "lucky" to have survived the last hearing as the main consensus in the party was that he was an absurd choice as a justice minister. "He will not have it as easy this time," Sul said.
A NPAD Supreme Council meeting Friday was dominated by the members' criticism of Park's nominee.
"It is a clear threat to the opposition," NPAD Chairman Rep. Moon Jae-in said.
The opposition has repeatedly slammed Hwang for some of his controversial judgments during a long legal career as a public prosecutor, lawyer and justice minister.
"He severely undermined the political neutrality of the prosecution," NPAD floor leader Rep. Lee Jong-kul told reporters Friday. "We will thoroughly examine his ethics and policy capability."
The opposition had accused Hwang of improperly influencing a prosecutorial investigation into the nation's top intelligence agency's meddling in the 2012 presidential election in Park's favor.
The law-and-order prosecutor also has a questionable history with cases related to national security.
As justice minister, Hwang had an active part in the 2014 abolishment of the minor Unified Progressive Party (UPP) for allegedly supporting North Korean ideology, as well as in the arrest of the UPP leader and former lawmaker Lee Seok-ki.
He had come under heavy criticism lately for attempting to exert undue influence into the prosecutors' probe into the Sung Woan-jong bribery scandal.
The party is also is expected to take issue with the 58-year-old's draft dodging and collecting excessive paychecks during his 17 months as a lawyer after leaving the prosecution in 2011.
The President will send a motion to the Assembly on May 26 to ask for a confirmation hearing for the prime minister nominee, according to Cheong Wa Dae Friday.
The Assembly is required to hold a confirmation hearing and vote for the nominee within 20 days after a motion is filed for a prime ministerial candidate.
The prime minister is the only Cabinet post that requires Assembly approval.
Park wants to conclude the parliamentary procedures for the confirmation before a visit to the United States in mid-June.