Collective Walkout of Democratic Party Lawmakers During Welfare Minister Nominee Hearing

At the confirmation hearing for Jeong Ho-young, the nominee for Minister of Health and Welfare, held at the National Assembly on the 3rd, lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties are disputing over the MRI data of Jeong's son submitted by the nominee.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] On the 3rd, during the confirmation hearing for Jeong Ho-young, the nominee for Minister of Health and Welfare, lawmakers from the Democratic Party of Korea walked out citing delays in the submission of materials. Only lawmakers from the People Power Party remained to continue the hearing.

Kim Seong-joo, the Democratic Party's floor leader, said, "They have avoided submitting the 2017 academic year materials until now, perhaps because they are afraid the truth will be revealed," adding, "Although there have been multiple ministerial confirmation hearings, this is truly the first time for such a hearing."

He continued, "This is the first time we have had a candidate with so many suspicions who also refuses or avoids submitting key materials," and said, "This is something for investigative agencies to uncover through investigation; continuing the hearing is meaningless," before walking out.

Earlier, Democratic Party lawmaker Go Min-jung claimed that she received the 2017 application documents for the transfer to the medical school at Kyungpook National University, submitted by the nominee's son, belatedly, and pointed out that although there was no difference between the 2017 rejected application and the following year's documents, the scores differed by more than 40 points. She said, "The two documents are identical down to the typos," and added, "It cannot be explained without subjective intervention that the same documents received a score more than 40 points higher."

After Kim walked out, other Democratic Party members also left. Lawmakers from the People Power Party remaining in the meeting room criticized the Democratic Party side. Kang Ki-yoon, the People Power Party floor leader, expressed regret toward the Democratic lawmakers who walked out, saying, "I think they left because the allegations raised during the hearing were proven false, and it was not right to raise suspicions."

Lawmaker Lee Jong-sung also said, "They spent less than 5% of the time on policy questions and mostly focused on personal attacks and allegations about children, then left citing the attitude of the responses," adding, "Why is there not a single word about the physical altercation and taking the MRI files?"

After the Democratic Party lawmakers left midway, only People Power Party lawmakers remained and held the hearing for about 30 minutes. When the remaining questions were finished, Chairman Kim Min-seok declared a recess.