Park Sun-won, a supreme council member of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, disclosed the identity of the person who first reported alleged lobbying over a new drug involving Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won, turning up pressure on the opposition. Park alleged that prosecutors "appear to have designated the informant as a public interest whistleblower and protected him even while aware of his illegal conduct, using him as an aide in an investigation targeting the Democratic Party." Han Dong-hoon, an independent lawmaker, condemned the disclosure as "a clear violation of the Public Interest Whistleblower Protection Act."
Speaking at a supreme council meeting held at the North Chungcheong Provincial Government office on the 11th, Park said Han "is distorting this as if a righteous man exists and a whole show is being staged based on his report. He is putting up a fake curtain in front of it." Park sorted the sources of information behind Han's daily allegations against the nominee into three categories — information from the whistleblower, surnamed Cho; information Han obtained while serving as justice minister; and illegally acquired information — and said Han "mixes these three together and fabricates a patchwork."
Park described Cho as "a co-chief executive of a company that signed a management consulting contract with a broker surnamed Yang in 2021." He said Cho "not only asked Yang for a personal relationship but also flaunted his ties to the People Power Party, boasting of his acquaintance with former PPP lawmaker Kweon Seong-dong's camp and offering to take Yang to Gangneung," the former lawmaker's constituency, "to introduce him."
On how Cho came to make the allegations public, Park said, "Cho took losses while doing business with Yang, did all sorts of things to recover those losses, and when he failed to get the money, he held a grudge and began reporting indiscriminately to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office." He added, "Cho demanded money from Yang and from Kang Se-chan, chief executive of Genencell. It started at 1 billion won, then 600 million won, and finally 200 million won. But Kang and Yang say they did not pay a single won of the settlement Cho demanded."
Park said, "So Cho reported the illegal lobbying through the drug safety ministry and secured whistleblower status for himself." Of the prosecutors who granted that status, he said they "appear to have designated him as a public interest whistleblower and protected him, using him as an aide in an investigation to go after the Democratic Party, even though they knew all about his illegal conduct, including trading stocks on undisclosed information and sending several threatening certified letters."
Park said the opposition is "putting forward the line that this is a report by a righteous man in an attempt to tarnish Kim Seung-won, and further to shake the Lee Jae-myung administration and overturn its prosecution reform wholesale." He called on Acting Justice Minister Lee Jin-soo to "comb through every document once again and verify the criminality."
After Park revealed the whistleblower's identity, Han wrote on Facebook that he was "appalled" and said legal responsibility must follow. "The confidentiality of a whistleblower's identity is thoroughly guaranteed by law, and yet the ruling party's supreme council disclosed it," Han said. "This is a clear violation of the Public Interest Whistleblower Protection Act, and it must carry heavy legal responsibility, not just political responsibility." He added, "What reason is there to defend Kim Seung-won in such a shameless way? Could it be that Kim is the very weakness that leaves the Lee Jae-myung government unable to move?"
In a follow-up post, Han said, "So they protect whistleblowers when it suits them, and when an unfavorable report comes out they disclose the informant's identity and attack him?" He continued, "A report by the Democratic Party is a righteous public interest report, and a public interest report by a lawmaker is illegal information and a patchwork? There are limits even to being unscrupulous and brazen."
