Lawmakers’ phone screens under fire

[Anchor]

Mobile phone contents of lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties, recorded in the National Assembly's main chamber, have sparked controversy.

Lee Choon-suak, the chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee from the Democratic Party, is under suspicion of engaging in stock trading under a false name, while Song Eon-seog, the chairman of the People Power Party's emergency committee and floor leader, sent a list of requests for special pardons to the presidential office.

Reporter Oh Dae-seong has the story.

[Report]

Yesterday (Aug. 4) in the National Assembly's main chamber.

A lawmaker is seen checking a stock trading app on their mobile phone.

It is Lee Choon-suak, the chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee from the Democratic Party.

Scenes of him checking his balance and trading Naver stocks in increments of five shares were captured.

However, the account is under the name of Mr. Cha, the name of an aide he has worked with for several years.

The account holds stocks worth about 100 million won, but during the asset disclosure in March of this year, the chairman reported his stock holdings as '0'.

If the chairman traded stocks under the aide's name, it would be a violation of the Financial Real Name Act due to trading under a false name.

As the controversy grew, Representative Jung Chung-rae ordered an urgent investigation just three hours after the report.

The chairman apologized, stating, "I briefly looked at my aide's phone."

However, he claimed that the trading under a false name is not true and that he would cooperate sincerely with the investigation.

[Lee Choon-suak/Chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee/Democratic Party: "(Why did you have the mobile phone if it wasn't yours?) That itself would become a controversy..."]

Chairman Lee was also seen looking at a stock account during last year's National Assembly audit, which was also under Mr. Cha's name.

The People Power Party has decided to file a complaint against the chairman and is urging him to resign from the position of chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee.

[Kwak Kyu-taek/Senior Spokesperson of the People Power Party: "Even the stocks traded that morning were selected for the government's announcement list of AI (artificial intelligence) companies representing Korea that afternoon."]

Meanwhile, the scene of Song Eon-seog, the chairman of the People Power Party's emergency committee, sending a list of requests for special pardons to the presidential office was also captured on camera yesterday.

Chairman Song had been critical of the controversy surrounding the pardon of former representative Cho Kuk, but there have been criticisms within the party that it is inappropriate.

The presidential office stated that it is gathering various opinions regarding the pardon of politicians and that a final decision has not yet been made.

This is KBS News, Oh Dae-seong.