The National Assembly Intelligence Committee held a general meeting on the 23rd and adopted a report on the personnel hearing for nominee Lee Jong-suk, the director of the National Intelligence Service. This is the first instance since the inauguration of President Lee Jae-myung that a personnel hearing report has been adopted in the National Assembly.
On that day, the Intelligence Committee convened a general meeting at 2 p.m. at the National Assembly and voted to approve the report on the nominee as "qualified." Earlier, during a four-hour personnel hearing on the 19th, the committee had intense questioning regarding the nominee's views on North Korea, diplomatic policies, and repeated traffic violations.
The ruling and opposition parties had been scheduled to adopt the report at a general meeting on the morning of the 20th, immediately after the hearing, but it was once aborted when the People Power Party opposed it, citing unresolved concerns regarding the nominee's security views and North Korea policy.
Lee Sung-gwon, a representative from the People Power Party and the committee’s secretary, met with reporters immediately after the general meeting and noted, "We cooperated in adopting the hearing report, believing that leaving the national security chief position vacant does not serve the national interest."
Lee continued, "As the war between Iran and Israel intensifies and the United States becomes involved, tensions on the Korean Peninsula could rise, and there are significant impacts on energy supply issues like oil and gas and financial markets." He added, “This is also the timing when 6,000 North Korean troops were deployed to the war in Ukraine," explaining the need for a swift appointment of the director of the National Intelligence Service. In this regard, the Intelligence Committee is set to receive reports from the National Intelligence Service regarding the situation in the Middle East starting as early as the 26th.
The nominee graduated from Sungkyunkwan University with a degree in public administration and has served as the 32nd Minister of Unification and the permanent chair of the National Security Council (NSC). He is known to have deeply engaged in establishing President Lee Jae-myung's unification and diplomatic policies as the chair of the Global Responsibility Nation Committee during this presidential election.
President Lee Jae-myung is expected to appoint the nominee to the director of the National Intelligence Service as early as that day.