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It has been confirmed that Lee Jong-seop, a candidate for defense minister, received a salary of several million won a month and worked as an advisor to a government agency and was active in a presidential election-related organization.
It seems that the controversy is likely to grow as he participated in politics from a position no different from a public official.
This is Kim Tae-hoon, a reporter specializing in national defense.
<Reporter> Lee
Jong-seop, a former lieutenant general of the Army, was appointed as a research and development advisory member of the Defense Science Research Institute in December 2020 and received about 3 million won a month.
Candidate Lee participated in the 'Defense Forum with the People' in support of former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol since June last year.
Candidate Lee said, "I was dismissed from the advisory committee on the 17th of last month according to my wishes."
He gave up his advisory position only when Defense Minister Hama-pyeong came out.
Candidate Lee has also served as an advisor to the Global Public Procurement Research Center at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and KAIST.
His monthly salary is 2 million won, and his service period is 5 months from August 1, last year, after participating in the Defense Forum.
[KAIST official: (Lee candidate) gave advice related to defense procurement.] The
Hearing Preparation TF answered that the Defense Science Research Institute and KAIST advisors do not have any obligation to be politically neutral because they are not civil servants.
However, a conflict of interest is raised about the participation of a person who has been receiving paid advice from government agencies and government-funded organizations to participate in the election-related organization.