The National Assembly's Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee held its first full session in 20 days on the 8th, but the meeting broke down again over a clash between the rival parties concerning Rep. Lee Jin-sook of the People Power Party. The Democratic Party of Korea passed a resolution on its own urging Lee to recuse herself from deliberations on matters in which she has a direct interest, prompting all People Power Party members to walk out in protest.
At the session, the committee approved the resolution urging Lee to refrain from speaking and voting on agenda items related to herself, with the ruling party taking the lead. The controversy over Lee's forum on the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement and questions about her qualifications to serve on the committee, which surfaced last month, again became the central point of contention.
Rep. Han Jun-ho of the Democratic Party, the ruling party's floor manager on the committee, said Lee had headed an agency subject to the committee's oversight during her tenure as chair of the Korea Communications Commission and was the target of a complaint filed directly by the committee on suspicion of giving false testimony at a parliamentary audit. Han argued that she should refrain from speaking and voting on matters involving investigations and trials related to disciplinary action, expulsion and the complaint, in which she has a direct interest.
Responding to Lee's claim that the National Assembly's Ethics Advisory Committee had told her there was no conflict of interest, Han countered that a review of routine interest-registration filings should not be taken as a determination that no conflict of interest exists across the committee's activities as a whole. The item was added to the agenda with 12 of the 18 members present voting in favor and five against.
The exchange between the two sides grew heated. When Rep. Lee Yeon-hee of the Democratic Party said a skunk had entered the hall of the people's will and was filling the National Assembly with its stench, targeting Lee Jin-sook, People Power Party members objected that the remark was a personal attack. Lee Jin-sook responded that Democratic Party lawmakers were raising the qualification issue as though they were engaging in collective violence, and said she regretted that they were giving off a skunk-like stench in a democracy.
When Song Ki-heon, chair of the committee, moved to begin the voting procedure on the resolution, all People Power Party members walked out. As they left, Democratic Party lawmakers told them they should be ashamed, and People Power Party members shot back that it was the Democrats who should be ashamed. The resolution passed without objection after the walkout, and Song declared a recess.
