Rep. Joo Jin-woo of the People Power Party alleged on the 15th that an aide to Kim Seung-won, the nominee for justice minister, secretly photographed his prepared questions for Kim's confirmation hearing, raising accusations of surveillance.
Joo released video footage from the hearing on Facebook the same day. The footage shows a woman seated behind Joo looking at his notes. While Joo, having finished writing, called over a staff member from his office to explain the notes, the woman raised a camera, photographed the contents of the notepad and then hurriedly lowered the camera. Joo said the woman was confirmed to be an official on Kim's side.
"The nominee putting me, a member of the confirmation committee, under surveillance — is this something that can happen in a liberal democracy?" Joo said. "How ashamed must a justice minister nominee be before the public that he insults the National Assembly by surveilling an opposition lawmaker?"
"The nominee is not a member of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. How can his aides roam freely among opposition members of the confirmation committee?" he said. "By any measure, this is clearly surveillance." He added: "Is he resorting even to surveillance in order to have the charges against President Lee Jae-myung dropped? I will take strong legal action. Covert filming and surveillance are serious crimes."
Earlier, an employee of the Office of the Prime Minister drew similar accusations of surveillance of opposition lawmakers after identifying the employee as a "member of the public" while asking a question at a press conference held by Rep. Han Dong-hoon, an independent.
