Anchor: A parliamentary confirmation hearing for Unification Minister-nominee Lee In-young was held Thursday. As the opposition grilled Lee on his previous pro-North Korea inclinations, the nominee stressed the need for inter-Korean ties to move forward regardless of the impasse in U.S.-North Korea negotiations.
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: 

[Sound bite: Lee In-young, Unification Minister Nominee (Korean)]
"The two Koreas must return to dialogue. The two sides must reaffirm mutual trust and implement past agreements to restart the clock for peace on the Korean Peninsula."

At his parliamentary confirmation hearing Thursday, Unification Minister-nominee Lee In-young stressed that inter-Korean ties should move forward, even when negotiations between the United States and North Korea hit an impasse.

[Sound bite: Lee In-young, Unification Minister Nominee (Korean)]
"I will actively make bold changes to redirect focus from the 'time of North Korea and the U.S.' to the 'time of the two Koreas.' In order to achieve that, we need to take a new approach towards the North that has creativity and imagination."

[Sound bite: Lee In-young, Unification Minister Nominee (Korean)]
"The most important thing would be to help the younger generation understand and prepare the process towards unification. I will blaze a trail for a peace process where industries and resources are combined and markets and currencies are merged to prepare for the unification of finances and politics. This will go beyond the basic step of active inter-Korean exchange and investments. In the 'process towards unification,' I pledge to draw up a four-step roadmap for a peaceful economy where the two Koreas coexist and prosper together by 2045, the centennial of Korea's liberation from Japan's colonial rule."

The main opposition United Future Party(UFP) focused on verifying the nominee's perspectives regarding North Korea and the U.S.

[Sound bite: Lee In-young, Unification Minister Nominee (Korean)]
"Since my nomination, I have looked back on a wish I've had since my youth for a peaceful unification and the past days when I devoted myself to realizing such a dream. There were times when pure passion was ahead of action. But that passion led me to have great interest in inter-Korean ties and unification, to become aware of the call of the times and stand here today."

Citing the nominee's previous pro-North Korea inclinations as a student activist in the 1980s, defector-turned-UFP lawmaker Thae Yong-ho pressed Lee to prove his ideological turnaround.

As Thae continued to ask when and where Lee formally declared his abandonment of the North's self-reliance ideology, the nominee responded by suggesting that Thae lacks an understanding of democracy in the South.

The opposition also argued that the nominee failed to submit sufficient documents to prove his morality, including circumstances surrounding his son's military exemption. The ruling Democratic Party called on the UFP to focus on the nominee's policy vision.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.