In the workshop for submitting materials and adopting witnesses… Han Dong-hoon’s personnel hearing postponed to next week

Candidate Dong-Hoon Han, Minister of Justice. 2022.4.15

The hearing on the appointment of Minister of Justice Han Dong-hoon, originally scheduled to be held on the 4th, has been postponed to next week following disagreements between the ruling and opposition parties over the issue of witness adoption.

The National Assembly Legislative and Judiciary Committee canceled the schedule for a personnel hearing on the 4th of a candidate on the 3rd. Instead, the Judiciary Committee agreed to hold a personnel hearing for a candidate on the 9th, one day before the inauguration of President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol, through consultations between the secretaries of the ruling and opposition parties.

The Democratic Party of Korea and the People’s Power had a big disagreement over the adoption of witnesses for a candidate’s personnel hearing, and the Democratic Party, in particular, demanded a postponement of the personnel hearing, saying that one candidate did not submit various materials. Lee Su-jin, floor spokesperson for the Democratic Party, asserted that “the verification materials and contents are considered to be very poor” in relation to the hearing of a candidate on the same day. Against this, Park Hyung-soo, spokesperson for the People’s Power, criticized, “It is not polite to the new government and the people for the Democrats to unilaterally postpone the hearing of a candidate without any particular reason,” but eventually agreed to the postponement.

The People’s Power believes that the Democratic Party’s insistence on postponement is an intention to avoid re-controversy over the so-called ‘examination and complete deprivation of the prosecution’s investigation authority’ at a candidate hearing. On the other hand, the Democratic Party, which put a candidate, who is a key close aide to President-elect Yoon, on the ‘removed horse list’ early, plans to launch a wave at the hearing on the 9th.

Reporter Lee Yoon-tae [email protected]

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