On Wednesday, the first day of the National Assembly's confirmation hearing for Prime Minister nominee Han Seong-sook, sharp exchanges between the ruling and opposition parties continued, with heated arguments erupting over the adoption of witnesses and references and the submission of documents. In particular, the hearing proceeded without a single one of the 11 witnesses and references requested by the People Power Party being adopted, raising "blind hearing" controversy. Critics also pointed out that although the nominee and related institutions responded to 88% of the 1,170 documents the People Power Party had requested to make up for this, many of the responses omitted supporting content, so the meaningful response rate was effectively only 63%. With no witnesses and insufficient answer materials, the public cannot determine which is true between the hearing members' criticisms and the nominee's answers, giving rise to the argument that the hearing is useless.
The ruling party's excessive shielding of the nominee is also a problem. Ruling party lawmakers repeatedly interrupted opposition lawmakers without the floor to obstruct their questioning or to disparage their points. In response to an opposition question asking the nominee whether North Korea is the "principal enemy," one ruling party lawmaker went so far as to say that during a past overseas visit, a local official had told him, "Is there any country in the world so stupid and foolish as to officially declare a principal enemy?" The Ministry of National Defense recently stated that "there is no change in the position that the North Korean regime and the North Korean military are our enemy," yet with such contradictory remarks coming from the ruling party, how can the nominee's view on security be properly verified?
It is regrettable that this hearing drew "lackluster" controversy from its very first day. The ruling party must refrain from shielding its own so that the verification can at least be conducted faithfully on the second day. It should also reflect on the fact that, of the 24 confirmation hearings for prime minister and minister nominees held since the current administration took office, 19 were conducted without witnesses. Nominee Han must offer more transparent and detailed answers to the various issues raised, including the roughly 25 billion won in assets held under her and her mother's names. Even if there is some potential for infringement of personal information or corporate management secrets in the opposition's data requests and questioning, it is important to listen to the points raised and respond as sincerely as possible. If the ruling party and nominee Han try to gloss over the hearing as if waiting out a passing shower, they may next face public sentiment even colder than during the June 3 local elections.
