Ruling and opposition parties agree on warrant issuance

President refused to accept witness summons, committee says

National Assembly Education Committee Chair Kim Hee-jung. [Provided by the lawmaker's office]
National Assembly Education Committee Chair Kim Hee-jung. [Provided by the lawmaker's office]

The National Assembly's Education Committee on Friday issued a warrant to compel the appearance of the president of Kyonggi University, who is on trial on charges of sexually groping a student.

The committee held a plenary session and voted, with the ruling and opposition parties in agreement, to issue the warrant against the university president, who had been designated as a witness for the national audit.

Rep. Ko Min-jung of the Democratic Party of Korea, who leads her party's side on the committee, said the panel needed to thoroughly examine how the president could have been elected to the post and how to prevent such incidents from recurring. "He is currently refusing to accept the witness summons and is avoiding contact," she said.

Ko added that the committee had resorted to posting the summons at his home and sending it by registered mail, but that it had been returned undelivered. She noted that the president had not even submitted a written explanation for his failure to appear, and asked Education Committee Chair Kim Hee-jung to issue the warrant.

The Kyonggi University president was selected as president-designate by the Gyeonggi Hagwon board of directors in May, but it later emerged that he was on trial on charges of sexually groping a student at a university where he had previously worked. As a result, the board voted to strip him of his position just one day after he took office. He was sentenced to eight months in prison on the groping charges in a first-instance ruling on Tuesday.


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