An executive of Samsung Electronics, who used the National Assembly's press card to enter and leave the assembly hall, stepped down to take responsibility for causing a stir.
Samsung Electronics said in a statement titled "We apologize again" on the afternoon of Oct. 8, "We sincerely apologize once again for a Samsung Electronics executive entering the National Assembly in an inappropriate manner. We are also thoroughly investigating whether there are more cases of violating parliamentary procedures."
Earlier, Rep. Ryu Ho-jung of the Justice Party said, "After we applied for a Samsung Electronics vice president (Parliamentary Inspection) as a witness, many officials from Samsung Electronics visited the lawmaker's office. We found out a Samsung executive came in with a press pass from a media company."
The executive is known to be a former member of the ruling Saenuri Party (currently the People Power Party) and is in charge of the business related to government agencies.
According to Ryu, the executive was registered as a long-term reporter for the National Assembly while concurrently serving as a reporter for an Internet media outlet as a member of the foreign cooperation team at Samsung Electronics' win-win cooperation center.
Sim Sang-jung, Justice Party leader, said in a press conference, "It is deplorable that the National Assembly, a first-class national security facility, was violated by Samsung Electronics.”
She said, “It should be investigated whether it was organized by Samsung Electronics to lobby through the National Assembly's security network by creating a ghost media company.”
Related to this, a Samsung Electronics official said, "The executive expressed his intention to resign to take responsibility for the scandal and we immediately accepted it. We are thoroughly investigating whether there are more cases of violating parliamentary procedures."
"It is obviously wrong to fail to follow the procedures set by the National Assembly," he said. "We will do everything necessary to prevent this from happening again in the future."
