Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon has posted close to 100 messages on Facebook in the nine days since Kim Seung-won was named justice minister nominee, raising his profile as confirmation hearing politics take center stage.
As the dispute surrounding Kim widened on the back of Han's successive allegations, the Democratic Party dropped its no-response policy and pivoted to defending the nominee, while the People Power Party has thrown its weight behind the allegations, largely following Han's messaging. Attention is turning to Han's next moves, given that his status as an independent makes it difficult for him to lead the response inside the National Assembly, including at the hearing itself.
According to political sources on the 7th, Han has posted as many as more than 20 Facebook messages in a single day since the 30th of last month, when the government announced its cabinet reshuffle. Ahead of the confirmation hearing set for the middle of this month, he has made Kim his main target and is leading the broader opposition push to force the nominee out.
Han has been disclosing, day after day, key recordings, text messages and prosecution investigation materials related to allegations that Kim lobbied on behalf of a new drug developed by Genencell. He is also focusing on allegations of a slush fund at the party's Gyeonggi provincial chapter. The People Power Party has widened its vetting to include Kim's drunk driving and questions over his family's income and assets, but the main flashpoints and the direction of the offensive in the confirmation fight continue to track the allegations Han has driven.
Han also publicly asked the National Assembly speaker on the same day to include him as a member of the committee questioning Kim. The request followed Kim's assertion that day that Han should appear as a witness at the hearing, taking issue with what Kim called Han's acquisition of materials by illegal means. "Since nominee Kim Seung-won wants this, I ask Speaker Cho Jung-sik and others involved to make me a member of the Kim Seung-won hearing," Han said. "That is, if a hearing is held at all."
Faced with Han's barrage, the Democratic Party shifted from the no-response line it had initially maintained to a full party-level counteroffensive. Park Sung-joon, the party's chief spokesperson, said after a closed-door supreme council meeting that day that "the party needs to respond actively to the negative campaigning against nominee Kim." He added: "Regarding the nominee's personal response, there were comments that the nominee needs to respond quickly. You can take it that a dedicated response team has been formed to counter the negative campaigning."
The constraints that come with being an independent, however, remain a hurdle for Han. In July this year, amid the controversy over abolishing prosecutors' supplementary investigation powers, Han invited crime victims to the National Assembly several times and held briefing sessions in a bid to sway public opinion, but the effort is seen as having failed to block the legislation or to change the ruling party's official position.
He was left effectively outside the fence in the parliamentary fight, unable to take part in the filibuster against the revision of the Criminal Procedure Act that eliminated the supplementary investigation powers. Without a party organization behind him, there are limits to translating influence into results through public messaging alone.
On the allegations against Kim as well, lawmakers close to Han within the People Power Party are actively echoing the questions he has raised, but the party has kept its distance from formal, party-level coordination. Unless Han takes part in the confirmation hearing himself, constraints on his ability to lead the vetting of Kim are seen as unavoidable.
