People Power Party Demands Postponement of 'January 19 Lee Hyehoon Hearing'... "Lee Deceiving with Empty Documents"

The People Power Party has called for the postponement of the confirmation hearing for Lee Hyehoon, the nominee for Minister of Planning and Budget, scheduled for January 19, citing her failure to submit verification documents.

Lee Hyehoon, nominee for Minister of Planning and Budget. Photo by Yonhap News

On January 15, Park Sooyoung, Lee Jongwook, and Park Sunghoon, members of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee from the People Power Party, held a press conference at the National Assembly. They stated, "Nominee Lee is deceiving the public and the National Assembly with empty documents," and urged the ruling party to postpone the confirmation hearing.

They explained that as of 5 p.m. on this day, Lee had responded to only 748 out of 2,187 requested documents, and more than half of these (415 documents) were effectively blank, citing reasons such as lack of consent for providing personal information. They particularly pointed out that the materials related to the controversial allegations-her sons' alleged military service privileges, the suspected fraudulent application for Banpo Raemian One Pentas apartments, and her spouse's alleged speculative land purchase in Yeongjongdo-were insufficient.

Assemblyman Park Sooyoung said, "It is shameless to use the excuse of not consenting to provide personal information just to get through the confirmation hearing on the 19th." He added, "If the hearing does not take place, the Blue House could proceed with the appointment immediately, but it would be a significant burden for President Lee Jaemyung to appoint someone under suspicion of corruption without proper verification." He continued, "It is necessary to work with the ruling party to postpone the hearing by two to three days and urge another round of document submissions. If the documents are still not submitted by then, the hearing itself would be meaningless."