Noh Young-min resigns from committee chair post due to power abuse scandal

New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) Rep. Noh Young-min (photo) has made an official apology on Wednesday for selling his book of poetry at the National Assembly building. He had a credit card payment device in his office so that his "customers" could pay with their credit cards. He has decided to resign from his chairmanship at the parliamentary committee for trade, industry and energy.

"I apologize for not being thoughtful as a lawmaker who should be a good model. I am taking the responsibility and giving up my chairmanship of the committee," he wrote an email to reporters. "I have received harsh criticism from the public because of the publication party that I threw. Whatever happens in the future, I will put the people first of all before I start acting."

Until Tuesday, Noh reportedly had seemed to realize that it was not wrong to sell the books with a credit card payment device in his office. His initial attitude was that there was nothing problematic about it, even asking the Board of Audit and Inspection for an inspection.

Rumor has it that the situation quickly reversed later that afternoon when NPAD Chairman Moon Jae-in made a statement about Noh`s case, saying, "The Board of Audit and Inspection will do their job thoroughly. Strict measures will be taken according to the inspection results." Moon had been neutral about Noh`s actions, but apparently reversed his attitude by announcing the pursuit of legal action against Noh. The lawmaker reportedly made a statement of apology after consulting with people around him. He must have felt cornered when even the Pro-Roh Moo-hyun camp started blaming him.

"Probably Noh changed his attitude because he did not want his scandal to affect Moon, while Moon is under lots of pressure lately from people demanding Moon`s resignation," an NPAD officer speculated.

mindy@donga.com