Lee Juho Notifies Absence from Inquiry as Acting Prime Minister
The National Assembly's Education Committee will hold an emergency inquiry into allegations of opinion manipulation involving Reebak School comments.
On June 11 at 2:00 p.m., the Education Committee will convene a plenary session to conduct the inquiry and introduce 96 bills under its jurisdiction.
Lawmakers from the Democratic Party of Korea who are members of the Education Committee are expected to focus their questions on whether Reebak School operated a comment manipulation team to influence public opinion during the presidential election period, and whether these individuals actually worked as Neulbom instructors in Seoul schools.
Attending the inquiry will be Oh Seokhwan, Vice Minister of Education, and Lee Baeyong, Chairperson of the National Education Commission. Lee Jooho, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, who is currently serving as Acting Prime Minister, will not attend. It is reported that Lee notified the committee of his absence, stating that he is temporarily performing duties as Acting Prime Minister.
On the afternoon of June 10, lawmakers from the Democratic Party of Korea and the Cho Kuk Innovation Party held a press conference at the National Assembly, stating, "As the head of the Ministry of Education and a party directly involved in the case, it is his minimum duty to explain the circumstances and present countermeasures before the National Assembly and the people." They further criticized, "It is a classic case of dereliction of duty for the responsible official, who should stand before the public, to use his position as a shield to evade responsibility."
Meanwhile, bills that could not be discussed due to the absence of standing committee sessions during the presidential election period will also be introduced at the plenary session on this day. The bills introduced at this session will be referred to subcommittees for full-scale deliberation. Included among them is a bill to change the status of the AI digital textbooks, introduced by the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, to "educational materials." The Democratic Party of Korea passed a similar amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act last year, but at that time, Acting President Choi Sangmok exercised his veto.
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