Suspicions that Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won lobbied regulators on behalf of a new drug are growing more specific. Han Dong-hoon, an independent lawmaker, escalated the pressure by releasing the contents of phone calls that he says show the nominee actively seeking favors. The Democratic Party moved to shield Kim, warning of legal action on grounds that Han disclosed material presumed to be prosecution investigation records.
Han posted the contents of calls between Kim and a man surnamed Yang on Facebook on the 6th, alleging that "there were blatantly illegal calls." According to the recording, on Oct. 12, 2021, Kim told Yang, "I will speak to them once and tell them to look into it directly," adding, "The food and drug safety commissioner will know about it, so I will ask the commissioner to report directly."
In a second call that followed, Kim told Yang, "I passed the message along, and they say they will check and report back to me." When Yang said, "The officials in charge do contact me, but it does not get past the director level," Kim replied, "It is stuck at the director level? Understood."
Han also released material that appears to show Kim Kang-lip, then commissioner of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, immediately relaying the request to the director in charge after being lobbied by the nominee. According to the text messages Han disclosed, an aide to the commissioner surnamed Ko told Kim, a director in charge of clinical trial policy, that "the nominee sent a separate text message. The commissioner said to look into it, but to make sure this kind of talk does not come up again."
Han also released video from February 2021 showing Democratic Party leaders visiting Jeju to encourage a company developing a treatment. Han said the head of that company is the person at the center of the allegations, and charged that "the Democratic Party is mounting an all-out defense because this is not just about one man, the nominee."
Kim's side pushed back directly, saying the recording "was cut at both ends to disguise a check on a citizen complaint as pressure for approval." Kim's confirmation hearing preparation team said in an explanatory document that "what the nominee asked of the food and drug safety commissioner was not approval but a review of the status of the screening and a report on it." It added that Yang's explanation that the screening had been delayed because officials in charge were avoiding responsibility was not among the material released.
Kim's camp says he only heard a reasonable account and replied that he would look into the reasons. It also drew a line, saying that passing a complaint received by the head of an agency to the department in charge amounts to no more than a routine administrative procedure. Kim's side stressed that "there was nothing asking for unconditional approval, easing of standards, or skipping of procedures."
Allegations surrounding Kim are piling up. Joo Jin-woo, a lawmaker of the People Power Party, alleged that 331 million won of government budget funds allocated to the Korea Child Development Social Cooperative, where Kim's spouse and child work, was used to pay their salaries. A photograph of Kim taken with Yang in November 2019 also surfaced, contradicting the claim that he first met Yang in 2022.
The Democratic Party counterattacked by questioning how the recording and other investigation material was obtained. Park Sung-joon, the party's chief spokesperson, said of Han that "playing politics with material of unknown origin is basically what an operator does," adding that "appropriate responsibility must be assigned and action taken."
Kim Dong-ah, a Democratic Party lawmaker, said that day that the party would file a complaint with the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials against Han and an unidentified person who supplied the material on charges including leaking official secrets. He raised the possibility that Han had kept material reported to him while serving as justice minister or had received it from a current prosecution official.
The Democratic Party also reaffirmed its existing position that it is difficult to conclude that Kim's actions were unlawful. Jeon Eun-soo, a floor spokesperson, said that "even after deploying more than 10 prosecutors over three years, conducting dragnet searches and indiscriminate investigations of people around him, the prosecution concluded that it was not an 'unlawful solicitation' but a 'screening that appeared to follow procedure.'" She called it "a political offensive that distorts the facts, irresponsible stigmatization, and a hunt for a minister nominee," and urged that "groundless smear campaigns and branding him a criminal stop immediately."
Separately, Jeon Yong-gi, a member of the Democratic Party's supreme council, said the nominee's failure to appear at his confirmation hearing preparation office, which had prompted claims that he had gone into hiding, was due to an urgent family situation. Jeon said that "it is not right to conclude that he 'went into hiding' or 'fled' before even checking the facts," and asked that "what needs to be vetted be handled at the hearing, and that unfounded speculation be refrained from."
