Lee Hye-hoon, nominee for Minister of the Ministry of Planning and Budget, faced an additional complaint over allegations that, during her time as a lawmaker, she ordered her aides to monitor each other and had them work on comments.
Lee Jong-bae, a Seoul city council member from the People Power Party, said on the 4th that he filed a complaint with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency accusing the nominee of abuse of authority to obstruct the exercise of rights, coercion, and intimidation.
Council member Lee argued, "If it is true that the nominee had aides delete critical comments, ordered mutual surveillance, and forced a head shaving, it constitutes abuse of authority, coercion, and intimidation," adding, "The nomination must be withdrawn immediately."
Earlier, a media outlet released an internal report written by aides when the nominee was serving as a lawmaker. The report included headlines of articles mentioning the nominee along with "comment actions and results." Aides at the time claimed the nominee had them report negative comments related to her and write rebuttal comments.
On the 2nd, council member Lee also filed a complaint against the nominee for intimidation and abuse of authority, saying the nominee "habitually used abusive language and engaged in character assassination against an intern employee" while serving as a lawmaker.
According to the released transcript, the nominee said to an intern employee, who had not reported a news article that mentioned her name, "Is your IQ a single digit?" and "I really wish I had killed you."