Assembly committee chair vows to pursue Homeplus hearing in talks with People Power Party

The National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee has formally moved to pursue a parliamentary hearing to establish accountability for the Homeplus crisis, as the retailer edges closer to what is in effect a bankruptcy process.

The committee held its first plenary session Monday without People Power Party members, who boycotted the meeting, and discussed measures to address the Homeplus situation. Should the hearing move forward, private equity fund MBK Partners — Homeplus's largest shareholder — and Meritz Financial Group, its largest creditor, are expected to be the primary targets.

Rep. Min Byeong-deok, chair of the Democratic Party of Korea's Euljiro Committee, told the session that the crisis was "a textbook case of a predatory private equity fund that acquires a company with massive debt, strips it bare and walks away." He added that he was "strongly urging the pursuit of a Homeplus hearing to protect the livelihoods of 100,000 workers and their families."

Committee chair Yoo Dong-su of the Democratic Party welcomed the call, saying he would pursue the hearing through consultations between floor managers once the People Power Party appoints its representative to the committee. "Because the ruling party is not participating, we will proceed with the hearing after the PPP's floor manager is named and inter-manager consultations take place," he said.

The People Power Party is currently boycotting all standing committee schedules in protest of the Democratic Party's unilateral formation of the Assembly leadership, which included the party single-handedly electing chairs for 11 standing and special committees. Whether a hearing actually takes place will therefore depend on when the two parties reach a deal on the Assembly's organizational structure and the Political Affairs Committee returns to normal operations.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party's Euljiro Committee plans to hold a press conference Tuesday, separate from the Assembly-level pressure campaign, denouncing MBK Partners and Meritz Financial and calling for concrete measures to address the Homeplus crisis.