Opposition split over Lee attacks ahead of P.M. confirmation hearing
By Korea HeraldPublished : Jan. 29, 2015 - 22:15
Main opposition party officials on Thursday reiterated suspicion that Prime Minister nominee Rep. Lee Wan-koo had speculated on real estate, as part of efforts to scrutinize the nation’s next potential Cabinet member.
The New Politics Alliance for Democracy has made a laundry list of accusations against Lee and his family. Lee has vowed to clear his name at his confirmation hearing next Monday, three days before the National Assembly puts his appointment to a final vote.
His critics fall into two camps. A moderate group says Lee’s confirmation hearing should focus on examining the nominee’s competence as the president’s top deputy. Hard-liners say that his past raises questions that must be answered.
The New Politics Alliance for Democracy has made a laundry list of accusations against Lee and his family. Lee has vowed to clear his name at his confirmation hearing next Monday, three days before the National Assembly puts his appointment to a final vote.
His critics fall into two camps. A moderate group says Lee’s confirmation hearing should focus on examining the nominee’s competence as the president’s top deputy. Hard-liners say that his past raises questions that must be answered.
NPAD hard-liners appear to be focusing their firepower on allegations that Lee speculated on land in Gyeonggi Province in 2000, when he was serving on the parliamentary panel that oversees national real estate policy. The value of the land he bought is thought to have risen tenfold.
His critics have also cited property records showing that the governing Saenuri Party’s former floor leader bought a luxury apartment in the relatively wealthy Gangnam district of Seoul in 2003, before selling it six months later for approximately 39 percent higher than the initial price.
Lee denied the charges, reiterating that he has documents to prove related tax payments and claimed that he sold the properties for reasons unrelated to speculation.
NPAD hard-liners have also launched attacks pertaining to Lee’s family, although main opposition officials appear to be retreating on those issues, after moderates hinted that the charges had gone too far.
Those attacks include an accusation that Lee’s second son dodged mandatory military service in 2006 by faking a leg injury, with Lee’s implicit approval.
In tears, Lee vowed Thursday that his son would take an MRI image of the leg. “I feel mixed emotions, because I could be asking him to do something beyond anything a father should ask his son to do,” he said.
Seoul National University Hospital officials later told reporters that X-ray photos of the leg “likely showed an earlier surgery in the ligament following an injury.”
Another charge against his family involves his brother, who was arrested in 2011 for influence peddling and receiving bribes from public contractors in South Chungcheong Province. Lee was governor there until 2009.
NPAD officials have also questioned Lee’s stint with law enforcement during ex-President Chun Doo-hwan’s rule in the early 1980s’, when Chun, a military dictator, used his influence over the military and police to impose an authoritarian regime.
The list goes on. But Lee appears confident that he will survive the political onrush, saying he will reveal everything at his confirmation hearing.
President Park Geun-hye last Friday named Lee to join her Cabinet as her No. 2.
Park supporters hope his reputation as a moderate compromiser among lawmakers from both the Saenuri Party and the NPAD will help boost the president’s struggling approval rating, which slid below 30 percent this week according to Realmeter, a local pollster.
By Jeong Hunny (hj257@heraldcorp.com)
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Articles by Korea Herald