Third ministerial nomination under Lee derailed by controversies over integrity

What was wrong could not endure. President Lee Jae Myung on Sunday withdrew the nomination of Lee Hye-hoon as minister for planning and budget.

Hong Ihk-pyo, senior presidential secretary for political affairs, said in a press briefing that Lee had “carefully reviewed the confirmation hearing and the public evaluation that followed.”

Hong said Lee Hye-hoon, despite her career as a three-term lawmaker in the conservative camp, “did not meet the standard the public expects” of a minister for planning and budget in the Lee administration.

The withdrawal is widely interpreted as a decision shaped by the negative public reaction to multiple controversies surrounding her.

President Lee had nominated the former lawmaker of the opposition People Power Party on Dec. 28, invoking “integration and pragmatism” as the rationale for the nomination.

Whenever allegations involving her or her family members arose, she said she would give a full accounting at the confirmation hearing.

But far from explaining herself on the core suspicions at the belatedly convened confirmation hearing, she instead offered explanations that strained credulity and repeatedly changed her account.

She submitted inaccurate information on her eldest son’s marital status to qualify to buy a high-priced apartment in Seoul. Her family listed the son as an unmarried dependent living together, to increase the family's score, though he was married and owned a home near his workplace in Sejong. This was an explanation that was difficult to accept by common sense. If this is true, it amounts to a crime.

Facing allegations of preferential admission at Yonsei University involving her eldest son, she initially said he had been admitted under a program for families with multiple children, then changed her explanation to assert he qualified as a beneficiary of a “national merit” category tied to a medal conferred on her father-in-law, Kim Tae-ho, a former interior minister. The claim drew criticism as a so-called “grandfather advantage.”

The confirmation process clarified, rather than dispelled, the grounds for her disqualification. Given further allegations of abusive conduct, such as shocking verbal attacks on her aides when she was a lawmaker, it was doubtful that she could properly carry out public duties even if appointed minister. Under the circumstances, the withdrawal of the nomination was inevitable.

From the outset, she should have more carefully weighed whether to accept the nomination. No one would have known her past better than she did. Moreover, it meant serving in a camp that holds a different political ideology. The People Power Party expelled her following her acceptance of the nomination. Above all, as allegations piled up, she should have apologized and voluntarily stepped aside before the opening of the confirmation hearing.

This is the third ministerial nomination to collapse under the Lee government. Kang Sun-woo, the nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family, resigned voluntarily as allegations mounted over her abusive treatment of aides during her time as a lawmaker and claims that she attempted to slash the ministry’s budget in an apparent retaliation for unfulfilled constituency demands. Lee Jin-sook, the nominee for Minister of Education, saw her nomination withdrawn over allegations of plagiarism and misappropriation of academic work, as well as her child's illegal early study abroad.

As nominations for high-ranking officials have repeatedly collapsed over issues of integrity and competence, Cheong Wa Dae’s vetting system has come under sharp criticism. One cannot but ask why issues with potential legal violations were not filtered out in advance. Some of the reasons for withdrawing Lee Hye-hoon's nomination were also matters that could have been adequately identified in advance.

Nominating a figure who turned out to be a “department store of irregularities,” then maintaining the nomination until it was finally withdrawn, indicates that Cheong Wa Dae either lacked the capacity for proper vetting or deliberately pushed ahead for political reasons, despite being aware of the allegations.


khnews@heraldcorp.com