Nine of the 28 government panels under South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, or 32%, did not hold a single in-person plenary session between 2024 and June 2026, according to data submitted to the National Assembly. Some conducted plenary business entirely on paper, while others held only working-level subcommittee meetings without any plenary session at all. The Committee on Trade Agreement Measures, which deliberates on trade treaties and responses to trade-related damage, met just once by written procedure after the current government took office last year, even as trade friction with the United States dominated the policy agenda.
The data was provided by the ministry to Rep. Choi Soo-jin of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee, and released on the 21st.
Four panels — the National Standards Council, the Root Industry Development Committee, the Committee on Trade Agreement Measures and the Strategy Meeting on Revitalizing the Future Vehicle Parts Industry Ecosystem — held plenary sessions only in written form during the period. The panels exist to gather expert opinion from outside the government, yet their members never met face to face.
The Root Industry Development Committee, the Committee on Trade Agreement Measures and the future vehicle parts strategy meeting held no subcommittee sessions either, raising concerns that they failed to function as advisory bodies. "You can collect members' views on paper, but it inevitably becomes a formality," Choi said. "Even as Korea-U.S. trade issues piled up, the Committee on Trade Agreement Measures met only once by written procedure in 2024 and once in 2026. Its operation was deficient." The National Standards Council held working-level subcommittee meetings in person, then put the results to a written vote at the plenary level.
Over the same period, two panels — the Biosafety Committee and the Overseas Resources Development Loan Review Council — held no plenary sessions at all and operated only through subcommittees. Three others — the Special Committee on Strengthening Steel Industry Competitiveness, the Gas Accident Investigation Committee and the Deliberation Committee on Win-Win Regional Jobs — held neither plenary nor subcommittee meetings after 2024. The steel committee is still being formed, and the gas accident panel had no meetings because no notable accidents occurred. The regional jobs committee appears to have been dormant since momentum behind the win-win regional jobs program faded after the Moon Jae-in administration left office.
The Industrial Digital Transformation Committee held one in-person plenary session on Oct. 17, 2024, and has held no plenary or subcommittee meetings since. Even so, the entire 48 million won ($33,000) budgeted for its meetings in 2025 was spent. Nine panels were also found to be in violation of the Framework Act on Gender Equality, which requires that no single gender account for more than 60% of appointed members. "The mismanagement of government panels is serious," Choi said. "I will demand fundamental reform so that they can substantively recover their function."
