Rocky road ahead for Cabinet nominees

Moon Jae-in’s pick for prime minister is likely to pass the parliamentary confirmation vote on Wednesday, but the prospects for other position nominees are becoming increasingly unclear. Among them is Foreign Minister candidate Kang Kyung-wha.

The National Assembly is poised to clear Lee Nak-yon’s appointment for the nation’s No. 2 job when it holds a plenary vote at 2 p.m. Wednesday. Over a majority of the current 299-member parliament is expected to cast a vote in favor of Lee, while some 120 legislators from the main opposition Liberty Party of Korea plan to boycott the ballot.

Prime Minster-nominee Lee Nak-yon (Yonhap)

Suh Hoon, the candidate for the chief of the National Intelligence Agency, will also likely see his designation clear the Assembly on Wednesday. A parliamentary information committee, which handles matters related to the national security and the spy agency, is expected to adopt a report on his two-day confirmation hearing at 4 p.m. Wednesday. Suh’s appointment does not require a floor vote.

Foreign Minister nominee, Kang, however, is likely to face tougher scrutiny over issues including the use of a false address and her daughter’s business interests with her subordinate at the UN.

The opposition People’s Party, with 40 lawmakers, openly vowed to get tough on the former ranking UN official during her confirmation hearings.

“Let’s make this clear. Our cooperating with the ruling party on the prime minister nominee shouldn’t be taken as a guidance on our future stance on other nominees in particular Kang Kyung-hwa and Kim Sang-jo (nominated to head the the Fair Trade Commission),” Rep. Kim Dong-cheol, the party’s floor leader said.

On Monday, the 62-year-old career diplomat apologized for allegations that she used a false address to get her daughter admitted to her alma mater. She said she was recommended by a close mentor to register a given address near Ewha Girls’ High School as her daughter’s residency. She claimed that she had no prior knowledge of the actual owner of the place, which happened to be the high school’s former principal. Her husband, who handed the information to the presidential office, made the matter more complicated for her.

Kang said that her husband was unaware of the entire process and speculated that the address belonged to a relative.

However, as she was pushed to contain the situation, the office of Rep. Lee Tae-kyu of the People’s Party made fresh accusations Monday that the eldest daughter also co-managed a “fishy” business with Kang’s former employee.

The Foreign Ministry said “the business wasn’t officially launched due to complications and Kang didn’t take any part in the business which didn’t infringe any legal boundaries.”

Kang said she doesn’t believe there is anything “inappropriate” about her daughter’s business partnership with her UN associate.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)

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