Ruling and Opposition Parties Discuss Adopting Special Inspector's Hearing Report with Concurrent Qualified and Unqualified Opinions
The ruling and opposition parties reached a consensus on October 19 to adopt the personnel hearing progress report on Special Inspector nominee Choi Kil-su with qualified and unqualified opinions recorded together, at the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee. The special inspector refers to the official tasked with investigating misconduct by senior government officials, while the personnel hearing progress report is a document summarizing the National Assembly's review of whether a nominee is fit for the post. Choi's confirmation hearing was held at the committee's plenary session on September 18, 2026, but the adoption of the hearing report has been delayed for about a month.
However, the ruling and opposition parties traded blame over the delay in processing the report. Kim Ui-gyeom, a lawmaker of the ruling Democratic Party who serves as the committee's majority whip, said, "I proposed a review on adopting the progress report on the day of the confirmation hearing, but there was opposition opinion that they would 'not agree to its adoption.'" He added, "At the plenary session on September 21, only the opposition whip attended and made remarks indicating unwillingness to cooperate, so the session was postponed to the next meeting." In contrast, lawmaker Park Hyeong-su countered, "The explanation in the notice distributed by Representative Kim, to the effect that 'the People Power Party did not cooperate in adopting the progress report,' is not true." He added that at the meeting on the 21st, he clearly conveyed to Kim that the report could be adopted even without committee members in attendance, on the condition that unqualified opinions be included alongside.
Kim Ui-gyeom said that discussions are underway between the party whips on the plan to adopt the report with both qualified and unqualified opinions, and that once an agreement is reached, the progress report will be processed even during the ongoing parliamentary audit. Democratic Party spokesperson Jo Gye-won said at a Supreme Council meeting on the 19th that the appointment process is expected to begin after the parliamentary audit concludes.
