Kim Seung-won, the nominee for justice minister, said independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon should "appear as a witness at the confirmation hearing and take responsibility for what he has said," pushing back against allegations that Kim lobbied for a new drug approval.
Kim made the remarks on the 7th as he arrived at his confirmation hearing preparation office at the Jeokseon Hyundai Building in Jongno District, Seoul. "During Han Dong-hoon's time as justice minister, more than 10 prosecutors were mobilized to investigate for about three years, but prosecutors acknowledged there was no improper solicitation or distortion of the review process, and the drug safety commissioner and all the officials involved were cleared," he said. Kim said he did speak by phone with the head of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety but made no improper request and applied no pressure.
He also strongly rejected suggestions that he had exerted pressure to obtain a suspended indictment. "When I received the suspended indictment in the related case, it was under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, with Park Sung-jae as justice minister and Shim Woo-sung as prosecutor general," he said. "How could I, a first-term Democratic Party lawmaker, have pressured the prosecution?" Kim said the prosecutors who issued the suspended indictment at the time should also be called as witnesses.
"I felt wronged even by the suspended indictment, so I filed a constitutional appeal with the Constitutional Court last year," Kim said. "We can wait calmly for that outcome, but Han is leaking, bit by bit, material from an investigation conducted while he was justice minister, and waging a political attack." He added, "Leaking investigative material is itself grounds for criminal punishment."
Kim also firmly denied allegations that he was involved in stock price manipulation related to Genencell, the company at the center of the lobbying claims. "I learned only now that Genencell is an unlisted company," he said. "The investigation ran for three years starting under the former minister, and I was never once summoned. If I had been involved in stock manipulation, would prosecutors have left me alone at the time?" He called the case a targeted investigation and the reporting distorted.
On his relationship with a broker surnamed Yang, Kim said, "I first came to know her as a customer at restaurants and cafes frequented by legal professionals." He said the two had little contact afterward until a connection formed when he took on her defense in a case involving a violation of the Labor Standards Act. "She heads a small company that makes and sells women's products and is pursuing a master's and doctoral program at Kyung Hee University, so it is true that I have respected her as a successful female entrepreneur and treated her as a close junior," he said.
Kim went on to stress that "making the prosecution service a human rights institution that serves the people is precisely the calling of this administration." He said, "I will carry out the purpose of reform so that investigative and prosecutorial agencies maintain political neutrality and exercise their authority solely for the people."
Han, meanwhile, responded to Kim's call for his testimony in a Facebook post, saying, "Since the nominee wants it, I ask Speaker Cho Jung-sik and other officials to make me a member of the confirmation hearing committee." He added, "That is, if a hearing is even held," a caveat suggesting Kim might step down before then. The hearing on Kim falls to the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, while Han sits on the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee.
