Opposition: "Ruling party gives no answer on witnesses for House Steering Committee audit... Democratic Party-style hypocrisy"

On October 20, the People Power Party criticized the ruling Democratic Party of Korea for refusing to cooperate on selecting witnesses for a parliamentary audit by the National Assembly’s House Steering Committee, including an audit of the Presidential Office. “Is it a parliamentary audit when they do it, but a political offensive when others do?” the party said, calling it “the quintessential Democratic Party-style double standard: ‘It’s romance when I do it, adultery when you do.’”

Yonhap News Agency

Kim Seungsoo, the People Power Party’s senior deputy floor leader, told reporters at the National Assembly that afternoon, “During the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, the Democratic Party unilaterally selected even First Lady Kim Keon Hee as a witness for the House Steering Committee’s parliamentary audit. But after taking power, its position has changed 180 degrees.”

The ruling and opposition parties have been negotiating the selection of witnesses for next week’s parliamentary audit by the House Steering Committee of the Presidential Office, the National Security Office, the Presidential Security Service and other agencies. The opposition has called for former Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik, former policy chief Kim Yong-beom, and Chief of the First Annex Office Kim Hyun-ji, among others, to be selected as witnesses, but the two sides have not narrowed their differences.

Kim said, “By the standards of the House Steering Committee’s parliamentary audit, newly appointed Presidential Chief of Staff Lim Kwang-hyun and policy chief Ha Jung-kyung have been in their posts for only about 15 days and a little over a month, respectively. If they are asked to take responsibility for the government’s dysfunction over the past 500 days, they will obviously deflect by saying, ‘That happened under the previous administration’ or ‘We’re looking into it.’ Is this the kind of hollow audit they want?”

He also addressed Chief of the First Annex Office Kim Hyun-ji, saying, “The Democratic Party summoned even the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the head of South Korea’s judiciary, as a witness to the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee’s parliamentary audit, yet it continues to block the appearance of a single Grade 1 secretary. Does the Democratic Party consider Chief Kim Hyun-ji more powerful than the Chief Justice?”

Kim continued, “Blocking witnesses and reference witnesses from appearing will not erase responsibility for the government’s failures or the public’s suspicions. If proper witnesses and reference witnesses do not appear at this House Steering Committee audit and the suspicions remain unresolved, the party will face strong public backlash and a loss of public support.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.