The Democratic Party has formed a dedicated response team to defend Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won, who faces allegations of soliciting approval for a new drug clinical trial, and has launched a counteroffensive against independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon. The party moved to aggressive public messaging after Han's daily stream of allegations began to take a toll, driving moderate voters away. But unlike Kim, who has signaled his intent to fight back, the party is keeping its distance from Gender Equality and Family Minister nominee Yong Hye-in, who is embroiled in disputes over retaining her proportional-representation seat and over allegations of treating her party as personal property.
Park Sung-joon, the Democratic Party's chief spokesperson, told reporters on the 7th after a closed-door Supreme Council meeting that the party had set up the response team. "The party also needs to respond actively to the negative campaign against nominee Kim," he said. The team includes Supreme Council members Han Min-soo and Jeon Yong-gi, spokesperson Cho Kye-won and Rep. Kim Dong-ah of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee.
"Put simply, it is a front-line response team," Park said. "It is a team preparing for nominee Kim Seung-won's confirmation hearing, and it will respond actively to the negative campaign." At the Supreme Council meeting, members also urged Kim himself to address the allegations quickly and forcefully, according to sources. Party spokespeople, including Park, held a video conference with Kim late on the 6th to discuss hearing strategy.
Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok had drawn a line on the 4th, saying he would "not respond" to Han's allegations. But the mood inside the party appears to have shifted toward active engagement as Han released, in succession, a transcript of a phone call between the nominee and a broker surnamed Yang, along with prosecution investigation records.
The party is casting the allegations against Kim as "selective excerpts and distortion" while focusing on how Han obtained the material he disclosed. Rep. Kim Eui-kyeom, the ruling party's floor manager on the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, said on radio that day: "This case was combed over exhaustively under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, when Han Dong-hoon was justice minister. Could there be any tougher vetting than that?" He argued the case had "already been vetted in advance by Han Dong-hoon's own camp," and criticized Han as "the finest pair of scissors in Joseon," accusing him of editing investigation records.
Rep. Park Jie-won, also a member of the committee, joined in. "If there had been a crime after three years of investigation, they would have sent him to prison," he said. "Han should start by explaining where he got the transcript."
Deteriorating public opinion also appears to have weighed on the party's hard-line response. In a Realmeter survey released that day, positive assessments of President Lee Jae-myung's handling of state affairs fell 1.5 percentage points from the previous week to 37.4%, an eighth straight weekly decline and the lowest since he took office. Among moderates, positive assessments fell 5.5 percentage points to 35.9%. Realmeter said controversies surrounding the ministerial nominees and over the property tax overhaul had eroded confidence in the administration's personnel choices and policies. The survey polled 2,510 eligible voters aged 18 and over nationwide from the 31st of last month through the 4th of this month by automated wireless response. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. Further details are available on the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.
The party, by contrast, is keeping its distance from Yong, who faces disputes over retaining her proportional-representation seat and over allegations of treating her party as personal property. Park said there had been "no" discussion of Yong at the Supreme Council meeting that day and declined to elaborate. Her confirmation hearing has yet to be scheduled.
Rep. Lee Soo-jin, the ruling party's floor manager on the National Assembly's Gender Equality and Family Committee, said on radio that day that "a hearing needs to be scheduled quickly so there is an opportunity to examine her convictions." She added: "It has to meet the public's standards, and because this is a post that demands high moral standing and political accountability, there are quite a few allegations piling up."
