Kim Seung-won, the nominee for justice minister, has been accused of paying salaries to party staff in the form of "payback" to create a slush fund while serving as chairman of the Democratic Party's Gyeonggi Province chapter. In a separate case involving alleged lobbying over a COVID-19 treatment, conservatives have called for a special counsel investigation.
Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon said on Facebook on the 3rd that while Kim served as chapter chairman, the party's Gyeonggi Province chapter paid several staff members an extra 2 million won a month on top of their actual salaries under the guise of wages.
"Was there a case in which that money was paid back through repeated and continuous transfers into an account held by a particular staff member, rather than the political funds account reported to the National Election Commission, and used as a slush fund?" Han said.
According to political sources, the party's Gyeonggi Province chapter paid a director and a deputy director in charge of general affairs an additional 2 million won a month on top of their salaries over several months in 2025. Including the two, a total of four people received salaries 1 million to 2 million won higher than usual, and a corresponding amount of about 45 million won was deposited into a separate account, sources said. The chapter has explained that the money was used as operating funds for business promotion expenses, according to sources. But critics say using money paid out as salary for other purposes could violate the Political Funds Act. Han said he had received a tip along with specific documents, calling it "exactly the way corrupt companies used to create slush funds in the past."
Kim told reporters on his way to his confirmation hearing preparation office on the same day that he had requested an accounting audit by the party's national headquarters and understood that an investigation was underway under the relevant procedures. His remarks were intended to convey that, regardless of whether the "payback" allegations are true, he was unaware of the matter.
Controversy is also growing over alleged solicitation for approval of clinical trials of a COVID-19 treatment. Beyond Kim, a founder of COVID-19 drug developer Genencell surnamed Kang and a broker surnamed Yang, allegations have emerged that a judge then in charge of arrest warrants was also involved. Han said the Supreme Prosecutors' Office had asked that a judge surnamed Jeong at the Seoul Western District Court, who was to review arrest warrants in the lobbying case involving Kang and others, be excluded from the warrant review, but that the Supreme Court did not accept the request.
Han said photographs of Judge Jeong together with Kim and Yang, as well as text messages in which Kim called the judge out for drinks saying he was with Yang, had surfaced during the investigation. Han also said Kim was "someone who should be subject to a special counsel investigation into new drug lobbying."
During the investigation into the case, Judge Jeong reviewed an arrest warrant in 2023 but rejected it, saying it was difficult to conclude that there was a risk of flight or destruction of evidence. Prosecutors later obtained an arrest warrant for Kang after supplementary investigation and indicted him in detention in February 2024. Judge Jeong is known to have worked with Kim at the Jeonju District Court. Kim said, "There was nothing improper. I want to clear my name through a constitutional appeal."
Rep. Park Jung-hoon of the People Power Party also raised questions about the relationship between Yang and Kim. "Yang is a former hostess at an entertainment bar in Seoul's Gangnam district who came to know Kim during his time as a judge," he said. "There is a photograph of Kim taken with Yang at Yang's home around the time the solicitation took place. A text message Yang sent to Kang saying, 'This guy does whatever I tell him to,' also shows the two had a special relationship."
The question of withdrawing the indictment in President Lee Jae-myung's criminal cases has also been a focus of opposition attacks. Kim served as co-chair of a group formed by Democratic Party lawmakers to seek the withdrawal of the indictment in Lee's case. Kim said the justice minister has no direct authority to withdraw an indictment and that he had no intention of directing the prosecutor general to do so. On allegations that he took on several sex crime cases as a lawyer, Kim said, "The law firm took the cases, and I was not involved."
