The first National Assembly audit of state affairs under the Lee Jae-myung administration has entered the final phase. In the final phase, the key issues are expected to be the legitimacy of the prosecution's investigation and indictment of President Lee Jae-myung, whether Presidential Secretariat Deputy Chief Kim Hyun-ji will appear as a witness at the audit, and real estate issues.
The ruling and opposition parties' clash over Deputy Chief Kim Hyun-ji is expected to continue into early next month, when the audits of standing committees with concurrent jurisdiction are held.
Shouting and disruptions tied to the way standing committees are run and to personal animosities between ruling and opposition lawmakers and witnesses from audited agencies are also expected to continue.
The ruling and opposition parties are expected to collide again at the Supreme Public Prosecutors' Office audit by the Legislation and Judiciary Committee on the 27th and at the comprehensive audit on the 30th.
The Democratic Party of Korea is expected at the SPO audit on the 27th to once again spotlight the prosecution's loss of a cash-banding seal strip case for which the Ministry of Justice decided to conduct a standing special counsel investigation, as well as allegations of outside pressure in the Coupang case, while stressing the need for prosecution reform. At the same time, it is expected to argue that the prosecution's investigation and indictment of President Lee Jae-myung were political oppression by the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.
The People Power Party is expected to counter that the decision for a standing special counsel on the cash-banding seal strip and Coupang cases is an attempt at "muddying the waters" by the ruling camp, which has been put on the defensive over real estate measures and tariff negotiations.
At the Legislation and Judiciary Committee's comprehensive audit of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Government Legislation, the Board of Audit and Inspection, the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, and others, issues including prosecution and judicial reform are expected to be fully arrayed, driving confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties to a peak.
At the National Policy Committee audit on the 27th and the Land Infrastructure and Transport Committee audit on the 29th, the Oct. 15 real estate measures are expected to come under scrutiny.
Regarding the recently released real estate measures that lowered the mortgage loan limit, the Democratic Party says they are the best way to curb speculation, while the People Power Party claims they have blocked ordinary people's chance to buy a home.
At the comprehensive audit of the Culture. Sports. and Tourism Committee on the 29th, controversy over former President Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife Kim Keon-hee entering Gyeongbok Palace's Gonyeonghap is expected to resurface, and at the Science. ICT. Broadcasting. and Communications Committee audit, controversy over Chair Choi Min-hee ordering the MBC news chief to leave is expected to return to the fore.
At the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee's comprehensive audit on the 28th, confrontation is expected over the government's response to the Cambodia situation, and at the Strategy and Finance Committee audit on the 30th, over the government's tax policy.
The National Assembly Steering Committee will hold a plenary meeting on the 29th to adopt witnesses ahead of the presidential office audit scheduled for Nov. 6, but a breakdown is highly likely.
Earlier, at the plenary meeting of the Steering Committee on the 15th, the ruling and opposition parties were to discuss the issue of Deputy Minister Kim Hyun-ji's appearance as a witness, but the Democratic Party postponed it.
The People Power Party is repeatedly raising suspicions, including that Deputy Minister Kim intervened in personnel matters and in changing the attorney in the North Korea remittances case, and is demanding that she appear as a witness at the Steering Committee audit. However, the Democratic Party's position is that it is difficult to agree to adopting witnesses for political strife aimed at offensives against the ruling party.