Samsung Electronics executive abuses National Assembly's media pass system

Rep. Ryu Ho-jeong of the minor opposition Justice Party speaks during a party meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul, Thursday. Ryu and other members of the party condemned an executive of Samsung Electronics who abused the Assembly's media pass system to pay visits to Ryu's office in the Assembly compound to dissuade her from trying to call in a vice president of the company as a witness for the audit of the Assembly's industry committee. Yonhap

By Jung Da-min

An executive with Samsung Electronics used a media pass to enter the National Assembly buildings in violation of relevant regulations, according to a minor party lawmaker and the National Assembly Secretariat.

The secretariat confirmed, Thursday, that the executive abused the Assembly's media pass system, with the Assembly Secretary General Kim Young-choon issuing a statement to express regret over the action and calling on the company to take responsible follow-up measures. It suspended the media pass and said it could take additional legal measures if needed.

The allegation was first raised the previous day by Rep. Ryu Ho-jeong of the minor opposition Justice Party, who serves on the Assembly's Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee.

“An executive of Samsung Electronics visited my office in the Assembly compound after I sought to call in a vice president of the company as a witness for the Assembly's audit regarding a civil complaint made against the company for stealing technologies from its subcontractor,” Ryu said during a press conference at the Assembly.

Ryu said the executive needed to receive an approval from her office to enter the Assembly building and visit her office but did not follow the procedure. As her office checked how he could enter the building, it was found that he had registered as a regular reporter covering the Assembly.

Later in the day, the secretariat said the executive had been registered as a reporter of an online media outlet covering the Assembly since 2016. It said the media has posted articles written under the name of the executive regularly, so there was no procedural flaw in having him registered as a reporter.

But suspicions have arisen that the media outlet is a “ghost company” because the address of its office on the website is a restaurant and the phone number belongs to a third person irrelevant to the company.

Kim said the secretariat would seek a response from Samsung Electronics as to whether the executive really belongs to the company and what kind of work he carries out there. The secretariat is also seeking a joint investigation with the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to check on whether the media outlet was established according to due process.

Samsung Electronics issued an apology, Thursday, saying it was clearly wrong to violate the Assembly's entrance regulations and the company would make sure to prevent such incident from recurring.

But the Justice Party strongly denounced Samsung, saying the company made a mockery of the Assembly, which is a top-level facility subject to national security protection. It urged the Assembly to investigate the case and prepare appropriate countermeasures, also calling for the law enforcement authorities' to determine whether there is systematic abuse of media passes by the company or it was simply a personal act of misconduct by the executive.