Assembly starts inspection of administration

The National Assembly started inspections of 16 government agencies and their affiliate organizations on Thursday, holding sessions of the Legislation-Judiciary, Finance-Economy and Unification-Foreign Affairs Committees, and took issue with the relaxation of military discipline, medical dispute and the Hanvit Bank loan scandal and other questions.

During the National Defense Committee session, Rep. Kang Chang-Sung of the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) contended that the process and method of the June 15 inter-Korean summit is very dangerous and this has resulted in boosting the North Korean structure, while disarming the South Korean armed forces.

At the Culture-Tourism Committee, Reps. Park Chong-Ung and Nam Kyung-Pil of the GNP asserted that one-sided cultural events are not true inter-Korean cultural exchanges, criticizing that the government was engaged in commercialism and casual events under the name of cultural exchanges.

During the Health-Welfare committee session, lawmakers of both the ruling and opposition parties claimed that the government had raised the medical fees on four occasions between November last year and September this year, in the absence of social consensus, thus adding to the financial burden foisted on the general public. Rep. Lee Jong-Kul of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) contended that the government has violated the medical law, as it raised the medical fees, in violation of the law provision that the hikes should be made in agreement between the head of the Medical Insurance Corporation and the representative of the medical circle.

During the inspection of the Inchon International Airport's construction project at the Construction-Transportation Committee, Reps. Kim Kwang-Won and Ahn Kyung-Yul of the GNP asserted that Arc World Company supplied the airport with man-made marble worth 1.1 billion won, borrowed from Hanvit Bank, and forced the airport authorities to change the construction plans.

However, the airport officials stated that the airport concluded a contract with Arc World as it presented the lowest bid, adding that the changes of the plans have no bearing with the choice of the project undertaker.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Lee Don-Hee told the Education Committee that the police officers making bodily search of the unionized teachers were given written warnings from the police chief, adding that the police assured that it would improve the process of physical exams. He said that he would endeavor to realize the protection of educational authority in accordance with the related legal stipulations.

Ahn Byung-Woo, director of the Prime Minister's policy coordination office, said that the results of the investigation into the Nogun-ri incident will be announced by the end of this year after finishing a collection of testimonies and examination of the bullets. He made the remark in reply to the question raised by Rep. Lee Bu-Young of the GNP, who asked if the government had delayed the announcement of the probe results for political considerations.