With the appointment of Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won entering its final stage, the standoff between the ruling and opposition parties is approaching a breaking point. The confirmation battle, triggered by a "super week" of hearings, is showing signs of spilling over into a paralyzed National Assembly. The opposition has strongly protested the ruling party's adoption of the confirmation hearing report on Kim, and has signaled street protests under the slogan of impeaching the president.
The ruling bloc, by contrast, says the hearings turned up no disqualifying findings serious enough to block the appointment. President Lee Jae-myung is scheduled to address the controversy over Kim's nomination directly at a news conference on the 18th.
People Power Party members of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee walked out en masse 12 minutes into a full committee meeting on the 17th, after protesting the Democratic Party's decision to table the motion to adopt Kim's confirmation hearing report. Rep. Park Hyung-soo of the People Power Party, the opposition's liaison on the committee, said tabling the motion "proves that the hearings themselves have been a mere formality," adding that "not a single allegation was resolved at the hearing." With the People Power Party members absent, the report was approved under the leadership of the ruling bloc. The Democratic Party says allegations that Kim solicited approval for a clinical trial of a new drug, along with allegations of favors involving his family, were sufficiently explained at the hearing, and that no serious grounds for disqualification were found that would prevent him from carrying out his duties.
In response to the ruling party's push to force through the confirmation report, the People Power Party widened the fight to other standing committees. The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee and the Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee, both chaired by party members, notified colleagues that they would not convene full meetings scheduled for the day. Confirmation reports on Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister nominee Hong Ji-sun and SMEs and Startups Minister nominee Lee So-young had been expected to be adopted without objection, but were held hostage to the controversy over Kim.
Mindful of criticism that it was obstructing state affairs, however, the People Power Party opted for a selective response committee by committee rather than a full boycott. At the Finance, Economy and Planning Committee, the party cooperated in adopting the confirmation report on Lee Hyoung-il, nominee for deputy prime minister and finance and economy minister. A senior People Power Party floor official said the party was "trying to respond selectively on matters where public opinion is serious," adding that "a full boycott of plenary sessions is not under consideration." Rep. Bae Joon-young of the People Power Party also said of Kim that "many of the questions raised have clearly not been settled," while adding that he shared "the view that a control tower is needed, one with a duty to turn around an economy in dire straits for ordinary people as quickly as possible."
The ruling bloc maintains that Kim's appointment is unavoidable despite the opposition's objections. The allegations raised were of a kind already screened during the presidential vetting process, it argues, leaving little justification for withdrawing the nomination. Rep. Kim Young-jin of the Democratic Party, a close ally of President Lee, said that "the opposition and the media spent about two weeks vetting him, and nothing came out beyond that."
The ruling bloc's decision to press ahead with the appointment despite opposition objections is seen as reflecting both its view that the allegations raised at the hearing were addressed and the burden of a prolonged vacancy at the top of the Justice Ministry. The Democratic Party says the nominee adequately answered the opposition's allegations that he solicited approval for a clinical trial of a new drug and that his spouse received preferential treatment. Rep. Kim said of the nominee that "the vetting is over," and that "weighing the overall interest, he should be appointed." He added that "a delay in the appointment is the bigger problem," and that "there is no alternative candidate."
Also at work is the practical argument that the absence of a control tower to direct a new criminal justice system cannot be allowed to drag on, with the launch of a prosecution office and a serious crimes investigation agency, along with the abolition of the Prosecution Service, just two weeks away. A new justice minister needs to start work quickly to complete follow-up steps such as organization, staffing and the transfer of functions, the argument goes. With Yong Hye-in, nominee for minister of gender equality and family, having already withdrawn during vetting, the concern that losing Kim as well could deepen the slide in the government's approval rating appears to have factored in.
Still, some expect a loss of public support to be unavoidable if the adoption of Kim's confirmation report leads to a forced appointment. The People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, a civic group generally friendly to the Democratic Party, has already formally declared its opposition to the appointment, and in a Korea Society Opinion Institute survey conducted on the 14th and 15th of 1,001 people aged 19 and over by automated mobile phone polling, opposition to Kim was overwhelming at 52.1%. Concerns over the push to withdraw indictments, one factor behind the decline in President Lee's approval rating, are also expected to resurface. The president is scheduled to lay out his position on the controversy surrounding Kim's appointment at his news conference.
