Confirmation hearings for the second reshuffle of the Lee Jae-myung administration will begin in earnest on the 15th. The ruling and opposition parties are expected to clash head-on over allegations raised against each nominee.
Starting at 10 a.m., the National Assembly will hold confirmation hearings for nominee Lee Hyung-il for Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of Strategy and Finance, nominee Kim Seung-won for Minister of Justice, and nominee Lee So-young for Minister of SMEs and Startups.
The fiercest confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties is expected at the confirmation hearing for nominee Kim Seung-won, who faces allegations of lobbying for a new drug clinical trial. Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon has been releasing related audio recordings day after day, amplifying the lobbying allegations. The People Power Party is also calling not only for Kim's resignation or withdrawal of the nomination but for a parliamentary investigation and a special prosecutor.
The Democratic Party is mounting a full defense, saying Kim received a suspended indictment in the related case and that no evidence has emerged to prove quid pro quo lobbying. In particular, it is countering that the lawmaker who led the allegation obtained investigative materials from prosecutors illegally.
Because Kim was the head of a group that argued for withdrawing the indictment in President Lee Jae-myung's case, clashes over the president's case are also expected to continue. As Kim has said regarding the withdrawal that he "has no authority and has no intention to direct" it, the Democratic Party says there is no problem.
Questions are also expected to continue regarding real estate allegations involving nominees Lee Hyung-il and Lee So-young. Lee Hyung-il was criticized for owning an apartment in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, for 17 years but living there for only four months. There were also reports that Lee So-young owns an apartment in Hongje-dong, Seoul, as a "non-resident single-home owner."