Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon asked National Assembly Speaker Cho Jung-sik on the 7th to allow him to serve as a panel member at the confirmation hearing for Kim Seung-won, the nominee for justice minister.
Meeting with reporters at the National Assembly, Han said he was making a formal request to the speaker and other officials to be appointed as a hearing panel member for Kim's confirmation. "I don't think the hearing for the nominee will even be held," he said, "but if it is, let me help prevent the first justice minister with a criminal record since the provisional government." Han is unlikely to be formally appointed, however, because he does not sit on the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee, which oversees the hearing. He serves on the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee.
Han has raised fresh allegations on Facebook over a suspected lobbying scheme involving a new drug, saying more "big brothers" of the Democratic Party of Korea would surface. He alleged that text messages from a man surnamed Yang, identified as a broker, referred to "Rep. Choi" and "Rep. Kim" in addition to the nominee. "Shouldn't we break up the big-brother cartel?" Han said. "I will show the public in full detail how corrupt the Democratic Party's big-brother cartel is." He said he would give the lawmakers mentioned a chance to come forward first.
Responding to a complaint the Democratic Party filed over the source of his allegations, Han said a lawmaker's role is to make public the reports of righteous citizens and whistleblowers and to protect them at the cost of his life. "I will not be shaken by such tricks," he said. He also pointed to what he called the many recordings of illegal content the party had used in the past, asking what those were. "If I did something illegal, prove it," he said. "Isn't it the side making the claim that has to prove it?"
