Parties to clash over justice minister
The annual parliamentary audit sessions will return this week, with rival parties anticipated to continue locking horns over the corruption scandals surrounding Justice Minster Cho Kuk and his family members.
The sessions are scheduled from Oct. 2 to 21, during which 17 standing committees will question members of over 700 ministries, government organizations and public companies.
At least nine of the 17 committees, each comprised of members of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and opposition parties, oversee organizations that are linked to Cho-related scandals.
This means much of the 20-day sessions will focus on Cho.
The reaming parts of the sessions will also deal with many thorny issues over which the parties have been divided concerning possible solutions.
Among the issues are growing historic, diplomatic, trade and security spats with Japan, the U.S.-North Korea denuclearization dialogue, the peace process on the Korean Peninsula and the outbreak of African swine fever.
“This year’s audit sessions will undoubtedly center on Cho,” Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University, said Sunday.
He speculated DPK’s collision with two conservative parties — the Liberty Korea Party (LKP) and the Bareunmirae Party — is “inevitable.”
Yul argued the liberal bloc has been underlining Cho as a key architect of Moon’s prosecution reform drive while the conservatives have been accusing Cho of being unqualified to carry out the job.
“No liberal or conservative parties want to appear as if their arguments in relation to Cho are illogical and fail to woo voters ahead of the general elections next year,” Shin said.
Political sources speculated the Legislation and Judiciary Committee will get the most public attention, considering it will look into the Ministry of Justice, Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office that probes into Cho’s allegations.
The possible topics to be brought up include Cho’s controversial phone call with one of the prosecutors who raided his house, the academic scandal involving Cho’s children and the potential overhaul of the prosecution’s investigative rights.
The Education Committee is expected to separately deal with whether Cho’s daughter received favors that allowed her to enter a prominent university.
The Strategy and Finance Committee may possibly question alleged violation of real-name real estate transactions involving Cho’s wife, while the National Policy Committee is likely to look into dubious investments in a private equity fund (PEF) concerning him and his wife.
Five others — the Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, Public Administration and Security Committee, Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs, and Startups Committee, Health and Welfare Committee and Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee — are likely to deal with other minor allegations.
Concerning Seoul-Tokyo spat, the parties may debate over whether the government should finalize its decision to exit an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan, GSOMIA.