The Democratic Party went on the offensive at the National Assembly Political Affairs Committee's comprehensive audit on the 21st, criticizing Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon over a controversy involving the disclosure of a public-interest whistleblower's identity. The People Power Party countered by raising remarks by the ruling bloc about a "fiscal straw" draining local budgets, as well as flight delays at Jeju Airport linked to President Lee Jae-myung's official aircraft.
Rep. Han Min-soo of the Democratic Party said at the audit that Oh had unfairly attacked a whistleblower who alleged that the Seoul city government tried to suppress an investigation into suspected kickbacks tied to the Han River bus project. "At the Land Committee's audit of the Seoul city government on the 19th, Mayor Oh attacked the whistleblower by saying that an internal review of the circumstances showed the case was related to the person's own personnel issue," Han said. "If whistleblowers are attacked like this, what public official would ever report suspected internal corruption?"
Rep. Park Min-kyu of the same party added that Oh "brought up the whistleblower's personnel issue and conflicts with colleagues in order to cover up suspicions that he concealed the matter." Park said Oh was "working to undermine the credibility of the report by portraying the whistleblower as having impure motives and having taken documents out." He also noted that Oh's reference to the whistleblower's personnel issue amounted to a violation of the Public Interest Whistleblower Protection Act. Rep. Jeon Hyun-heui of the Democratic Party said there were indications that an inquiry the whistleblower had made to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission before filing the report had been passed to the Seoul city government, and stressed that the commission needs to conduct an internal investigation.
The People Power Party sharply criticized the recent "fiscal straw" controversy raised within the Democratic Party. Rep. Kim Jae-sup of the People Power Party said, "Rather than talking nonsense about a fiscal straw while depending on local finances, if firefighters were converted to national civil servants, the central government should step up and provide treatment that matches that status." He added, "I do not consider it an appropriate response for the ruling party leader to go there and call out firefighters who should be resting at dawn to deliver a lecture, and the government should not act that way."
Rep. Shin Dong-wook of the People Power Party raised the attendance of the head of the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency at a Cabinet meeting, saying, "According to the legal community, this is the first time the top official of an investigative agency has attended a Cabinet meeting." Shin also pressed, "Why has no head of any investigative agency attended until now?" He was pointing to the breaking of a precedent under which heads of investigative agencies had not attended Cabinet meetings presided over by the president, in order to preserve independence and impartiality.
Shin also referred to the large-scale delays that occurred at Jeju Airport on the day the presidential aircraft used the facility. "A total of 236 flights were delayed and 10 were diverted. Some 80,000 people were using the airport at the time, and it was chaos, with shouting matches breaking out," he said. "Shouldn't the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission investigate this?" He added that "an airport being paralyzed because the president parked his official aircraft there is something you see only in an underdeveloped country."
The party also called for the resignation of Fair Trade Commission Chairman Joo Byung-ki over remarks suggesting that chaebol, South Korea's large family-controlled conglomerates, are exploiting the country. Rep. Seo Il-jun, the People Power Party's floor manager on the Political Affairs Committee, said, "Can a chairman who holds such negative views about particular companies really enforce the law fairly, without political bias?" Joo responded that he had "not denied the role of large companies in the growth and development of the Korean economy," explaining that his point was that "if large companies are to build global competitiveness and sustain their development, they must address opaque governance structures within conglomerate groups and the side effects of concentrated economic power."