Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism refutes claim of ‘legitimate supervisory authority’ to Sports Council’s claim of ‘election intervention’
Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism refutes claim of ‘legitimate supervisory authority’ to Sports Council’s claim of ‘election intervention’
Blog Article
Recently, the conflict is deepening as the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) notified Korea Sports Council President Lee Ki-heung of a suspension from his duties, and the Korea Sports Council responded by filing a lawsuit to cancel the suspension notice and an application for an injunction to suspend execution with the Seoul Administrative Court.
This is a power struggle unfolding as Chairman Lee Ki-heung seeks to run for a third term in the Korea Sports Council election scheduled for January 2025.
According to the Korea Sports Council's Articles of Association, executives, including the president, may serve a single term of office, and a third term requires deliberation by the Sports Fair Play Committee.
The Sports Fair Trade Committee of the Korea Sports Council, which reviewed Chairman Lee Ki-heung's bid for a third term, met on the 12th, and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which is the department in charge of the Korea Sports Council, notified Chairman Lee Ki-heung of his suspension from his duties on the evening of the 11th.
The Korea Sports Council responded by saying that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is illegally interfering in the presidential election.
However, some in the sports world are gaining ground in the argument that it is unreasonable for Chairman Lee Ki-heung, who has been requested to be investigated by the Joint Government Service Inspection Team of the Office for Government Policy Coordination on charges of obstruction of business, acceptance of bribes, and embezzlement, to run for a third term.
In addition, there are growing voices criticizing the fairness of the Sports Fair Trade Commission's decision to approve Chairman Lee's bid for a third term on the 12th, in a situation where an investigation request was made on the 10th and a notice of suspension from duty was issued on the 11th.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism pointed out that "it is unfair for the Sports Fair Trade Commission, comprised of people appointed by Chairman Lee Ki-heung, to review Chairman Lee Ki-heung's reappointment," but Chairman Lee Ki-heung pushed ahead at a press conference on the closing day of the National Sports Festival in October, saying, "If we want to change the composition of the Fair Trade Commission, we should do so before the process begins or through the next system improvement. Changing it now is impossible," and eventually received approval to run for a third term from the members he appointed.
A Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism official pointed out, "The Korea Sports Council's Sports Fair Trade Commission is a committee with independent deliberation and voting rights, so if there is a corrective order from the competent ministry, it must decide whether to accept it after deliberation by the relevant committee, but the Sports Council office unilaterally refused to accept it without going through this process."
This is a criticism of the lack of legitimacy in the process.
In response to the Korea Sports Council's claim that "the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism attempted to intervene in the Fair Trade Commission's review by notifying a suspension of duties on the 11th, the day before the Fair Trade Commission's review," a Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism official countered by saying, "We took action in 스포츠토토사이트 accordance with the Act on the Management of Public Institutions in a situation where an investigation was requested on the 10th on charges of corruption based on the results of an investigation by the Office for Government Policy Coordination's Public Service Management Office."
The official directly refuted the claim, saying, "According to the National Sports Promotion Act, the competent ministry with the authority to approve (the Korea Sports Council President) has the responsibility to manage and supervise subordinate public institutions so that they are operated fairly," and "It is also a logical contradiction to claim that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is intervening in the election when Chairman Lee Ki-heung has not yet revealed whether he will run for the Korea Sports Council President election."
The Korea Sports Council's labor union and executives have also been critical of Chairman Lee Ki-heung's bid for a third term, and civic groups in the sports community, including the Cultural Solidarity, the Sports Citizens' Coalition, and the Sports Human Rights Research Institute, have issued a joint statement urging Chairman Lee Ki-heung to "self-reflect, apologize, and resign immediately," and the level of pressure on Chairman Lee to not run in the election is growing by the day.