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Over at the National Assembly...
Lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties have agreed to launch a probe into suspicions
the country's intelligence agency interfered in last year's presidential election.
They also decided to focus on approving a series of economy-related bills during the
June session.
Our Kim Yeon-ji has more. The rival parties agreed to process their plan Wednesday to
probe into the scandal involving the National Intelligence Service in a plenary session
next week.
The NIS is accused of meddling in last year's presidential election by ordering agents to
post negative comments online about the opposition candidate.
However, the ruling and opposition parties are still locking horns over whether it was
legitimate for the NIS to disclose the transcript of the 2007 inter-Korean summit.
NIS chief Nam Jae-joon reportedly told the intelligence committee Tuesday that he released
the document to restore honor to his agency, boost agents' morale and protect national
security.
Coming out of the closed-door meeting, however, the committee's ruling and opposition lawmakers
gave out very different explanations.
"The NIS exists for national security only. The NIS chief explained that restoring the
agency's honor was part of that mission."
"If the NIS chief said he disclosed the summit minutes for the national interest, we would
have at least understood his motive. But he said he released the transcript to boost agents'
morale and restore the honor of the NIS, refusing to say he did it for the national interest."
Nevertheless, their agreement to launch a probe into the NIS election scandal pushed
forward the legislation of a series of bills.
In a full-member session Tuesday, lawmakers voted in favor of an amendment giving more
government bodies the authority to regulate unfair business practices.
Currently, only the Fair Trade Commission can determine what constitutes Fair Trade
Act violations and bring charges against the violators.
However, the new bill allows the Inspector General and the Small and Medium Business
Administration chief to demand the FTC take action... even if it rules out certain cases.
And the bill makes it mandatory for the FTC chief to report those cases to the Prosecutor
General.
Kim Yeon-ji, Arirang News.