In National Assembly, 139 Lawmakers Hold 227 Other Jobs

It turns out that 139 out of 299 National Assembly members are holding 227 kinds of additional posts other than their parliamentary jobs.

Some lawmakers are in charge of jobs directly related to the works of national assembly standing committees, or even working for a certain interest group or a company as an advisor or an outside director.

The revised National Assembly law, which passed the National Assembly last Thursday, bans profit-making activities by lawmakers if those jobs touch upon the works of one’s standing committee. From next June when the law takes effect, the 139 lawmakers have to abandon either their standing committee jobs or their additional posts.

Through an information disclosure request, the Dong-A Ilbo exclusively acquired the data about the secondary positions that 17th National Assembly members hold yesterday.

According to the data, rep. Woo Yoon-keun (Uri Party), while belonging to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, is also a legal advisor of the Korea Highway Corporation, Korea Land Corporation, and some private corporations such as Hando Industry.

Representative and former minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy Shin Kook-hwan works for Samjung KPMG Group as an advisor and for Sodiff Advanced Materials as an outside director, as well as for the Finance and Economy Committee.

Another Finance and Economy committee member and former deputy prime minister and finance minister Kim Jin-pyo is an advisor of an interest group, the Korea Association of Certified Public Tax Accountants.

Rep. Shin Jung-sik (Uri Party) is an advisor for Taehwa Electron and Suhun Welfare Corporation, and is an outside director of Kumho Life Insurance, although the jobs have little to do with the Agriculture, Forestry, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Committee he belongs to.

Ruling party members were notably more active in getting additional positions than their opposition counterparts.

In the ruling Uri party, 70 lawmakers are holding 128 posts, 1.83 per person on average. On the other hand, the opposition Grand National party shared 74 posts among 60 members, 1.23 on average.

Meanwhile, some representatives are under suspicion that they neglected the duty to report about their other posts to the National Assembly, as the number of jobs registered in the National Assembly is smaller in some cases than that of jobs listed on their homepages. The National Assembly law stipulates that the parliamentary members have a duty to report if they get additional posts.

Young-Chan Yoon yyc11@donga.com