Assembly finance committee adopts witnesses for national audit, excluding key ETF figure

The National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee approved its witness list for this year's national audit, naming Homeplus CEO Cho Ju-yeon and Paul Singer, founder of US activist fund Elliott Management, among those summoned.

The People Power Party had demanded the committee also call Kim Yong-beom, former presidential office policy chief, to testify about the introduction of single-stock leverage ETFs. When that request was rejected, PPP members refused to participate in the vote.

The committee held a plenary session Thursday and approved a motion requiring 18 general witnesses and two reference witnesses to appear at the national audit. The list includes Cho, Singer and Yoon Gu, chief of Google Korea.

The committee plans to question Singer about Elliott's investments in South Korean companies and its exercise of shareholder rights. Yoon will be asked about how Google Korea manages content involving false information and defamation.

From the oil refining industry, the committee adopted Kim Jong-hwa of SK Energy, Song Myung-jun of HD Hyundai Oilbank, Heo Se-hong of GS Caltex and Anwar Al-Hizazi of S-Oil as witnesses. The committee intends to question them on fuel dispensing practices, including whether customers can choose to pump by volume or by price at the pump.

The witness selection process was marked by a clash between the ruling and opposition parties over single-stock leverage ETFs. The People Power Party pushed to include Kim and Mirae Asset Group Chairman Park Hyun-joo as witnesses or reference witnesses, but negotiators from both parties failed to reach an agreement.

PPP members of the committee held a press conference before the plenary session, arguing that the committee must determine who first proposed the leverage ETF and what review and reporting process led to its introduction. The party said it had requested 39 general witnesses related to the matter, none of whom were adopted.

Rep. Seo Il-jun of the People Power Party, who leads his party's side on the committee, said during the plenary session, "How can we get to the bottom of this without directly questioning former Chief Kim, who was at the heart of the policy decision-making process at the time?" PPP lawmakers then left the chamber without voting on the witness and reference witness attendance motion.

In response, Rep. Park Sang-hyeok of the Democratic Party, who leads his party's side on the committee, said the party would work to make the regular session's national audit more productive, but added it would "respond firmly to unnecessary political disputes or anything rooted in conspiracy theories."

Committee Chairman Yoo Dong-su called on negotiators from both parties to hold further talks, urging them to continue discussing the witness issue given that time remains before the comprehensive audit session.