Parties clash over NIS nominee

[Anchor]

Today (6.19), a confirmation hearing for Lee Jong-seok, the nominee for the Director of the National Intelligence Service, was held at the National Assembly.

The opposition questioned his views on North Korea, while the ruling party objected to some of the remarks, leading to a brief shouting match.

Reporter Kim Gi-hwa has the details.

[Report]

The confirmation hearing for Lee Jong-seok, the first public office nominee of the Lee Jae Myung administration, took place today.

The opposition focused on the nominee's past remarks regarding 'suspending joint military exercises with the U.S.' and the 'Cheonan naval ship sinking,' questioning his stance on North Korea.

[Song Eon-seog/Intelligence Committee Member/People Power Party: “You said the public misunderstood the Cheonan sinking. Is that true?”]

[Lee Jong-seok/National Intelligence Service Director nominee: "I do not remember."]

[Song Eon-seog: “If you can’t recall such a key issue, are you qualified to lead the agency?”

[Yoo Yeong-ha/Intelligence Committee Member/People Power Party: “Do you have difficulty calling North Korea our ‘main enemy’?”]

[Lee Jong-seok: "Regarding the main enemy issue..."]

[Yoo Yeong-ha: "Just a moment. Is there any difficulty or not?"]

[Lee Jong-seok: "There is difficulty."]

The ruling party defended the nominee, stating that verifying his qualifications and abilities should take precedence, and questioning past remarks is inappropriate.

[Kim Young-jin/Intelligence Committee Member/Democratic Party: "Asking about remarks from 10 or 20 years ago and whether he remembers them is not the right approach."]

[Youn Kun-young/Intelligence Committee Member/Democratic Party: "I believe that bringing up terms like pro-North and pro-communist towards the nominee has a political intent."]

The exchanges continued, leading to raised voices at times.

[Song Eon-seog/Intelligence Committee Member/People Power Party: "(The NIS) might degrade into an agency functioning as North Korea's liaison office, which raises concerns."]

[Kim Young-jin/Intelligence Committee Member/Democratic Party: “Calling him a ‘liaison officer for the North’ is completely unacceptable. We demand an apology from floor leader Song.”]

["I was in the middle of speaking. (Why are you speaking informally!) I said I was in the middle of speaking. I did not speak informally!"]

The nominee stated in his opening remarks that he would do his utmost to prepare for the nuclear threat from North Korea while actively working to ease tensions between the two Koreas.

The National Assembly Intelligence Committee is scheduled to hold a full meeting tomorrow (6.20) morning to discuss whether to adopt the confirmation report.

This is KBS News, Kim Gi-hwa.