By Kim Yoo-chul
Floor leaders from the country’s five major political parties agreed, Wednesday, to launch a National Assembly investigation next month into hiring irregularities at public firms.
The investigation will also deal with illegal hiring practices at state-owned institutions and agencies nationwide.
The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) and the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party agreed to end their boycott of Assembly sessions after the agreement.
The accord came a day after the two conservative parties began boycotting all sessions, demanding the DPK accept calls for an investigation into the scandal.
“Chiefs of the country’s five parties including the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and the LKP also agreed to investigate allegations related directly to favoritism in the job market,” a DPK official said.
The official added National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang mediated talks to fix the specifics for the upcoming Assembly investigation.
Earlier, four opposition parties said a joint probe into the widespread practice of public agencies, including the state-owned casino operator Kangwon Land, as a key prerequisite to normalize the Assembly.
But the ruling DPK initially refused to agree, asking the opposition parties to move forward with 90 bills pending at the Assembly.
A full investigation into the alleged hiring irregularities emerged as an urgent issue for the parties after recent revelations that around 2,000 of the 17,084 employees of Seoul Metro were in some way related to other employees.
Representatives Kwon Seong-dong and Yeom Dong-yeol were recently charged with abuse of power and business interference, for exerting undue pressure in requesting friends and acquaintances be hired as trainees at the casino.
The country’s top financial regulators found more than 25 cases of hiring malpractices at five local banks early this year after Woori Bank, a leading private lender, was accused last year of hiring more than a dozen entry-level workers who were mostly children or other relatives of the “elite.”