Sports Ministry to ask external body to judge Olympic chief's bid for third term

The Sports Ministry said Tuesday that it will have a separate organization judge whether Korean Olympic chief Lee Kee-heung is fit to run for a third term, expressing regret that the Olympic committee's fair trade commission green lit Lee's bid

Lee Kee-heung, president of the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee, speaks during a parliamentary audit held on Oct. 22. [NEWS1]

The Sports Ministry said Tuesday that it will have a separate organization judge whether Korean Olympic chief Lee Kee-heung is fit to run for a third term, expressing regret that the Korea Sport and Olympic Committee's fair trade commission green lit Lee's bid earlier the same day despite him currently being suspended for alleged misconduct.

The ministry released a statement on Tuesday evening in response to the KSOC fair play commission’s decision to allow Lee to run for a third term, saying that it does not make sense for a body appointed by KSOC to determine the head of KSOC's fitness for office, especially when the head of KSOC was suspended a day earlier.

“As the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism judged that we cannot expect fairness from KSOC, we will have a separate organization consider whether or not it can approve the KSOC’s board members’ bid to run for another term,” the ministry said in the statement. “We will also work to reinforce the legal and systematic approach with which the ministry can discipline KSOC board members.”

Lee was suspended on Monday for alleged improper conduct including illicit hiring practices and misappropriation of funds.

The Office for Government Policy Coordination inspection team launched a monthlong on-site investigation beginning Oct. 8, dispatching six investigators after receiving reports of alleged misconduct within KSOC.

According to the team, Lee is alleged to have improperly influenced the hiring of his daughter’s college friend for a position at the Jincheon National Training Center in North Chungcheong. Investigations revealed that Lee provided a resume to a high-ranking training center official and instructed several times that the hiring qualifications be altered, removing requirements such as national team experience and a Level Two professional sports instructor certification.

Protesters call for Lee Kee-heung to be banned from running for a third term as Korean Sport and Olympic Committee president outside the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee building in southern Seoul on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

The ministry also pointed out that the KSOC did not follow the rules that determine whether candidates running for president are eligible.

“The rules judging the candidates are how much the candidate contributed to the KSOC financially, how much the candidate contributed in order for [Team Korea] to perform well in major international tournaments and how much the candidate contributed in order for the KSOC to receive good evaluation from organizations outside,” the ministry said, “But the current criteria only judges the candidate’s attendance rate in board meetings, the candidate’s criminal record or whether the candidate won a prize. Seventy percent of the judgement criteria that the KSOC uses is irrelevant to the rules.”

Lee was first elected as KSOC president in September 2016 and reappointed in 2021. Under KSOC rules, a president can only run for a third term if approved by the commission.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN, JIM BULLEY [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]