The withdrawal of Yong Hye-in as nominee for gender equality and family minister has shifted the confrontation between South Korea's rival parties to Kim Seung-won, the nominee for justice minister, as a week of confirmation hearings begins. The Democratic Party has moved to defend Kim, casting a past prosecution investigation into him as a targeted probe aimed at Lee Jae-myung, then the opposition leader. The People Power Party called Yong's withdrawal a just outcome and signaled a full-scale offensive, saying Kim would be next.
With Yong out, the Democratic Party is concentrating its efforts on protecting Kim, according to ruling bloc officials on the 13th. Party officials worry that if Kim, a central figure in the cabinet reshuffle, also falls, the fallout would extend beyond the dispute over vetting to the Lee Jae-myung administration's ability to govern. A vacancy at the justice ministry would also disrupt follow-up steps in prosecution reform, with the new Public Prosecution Office and the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency set to launch next month.
The Democratic Party went on the offensive by challenging the earlier investigation. Suh Young-kyo, chair of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, and Kim Eui-kyeom, the party's committee floor manager, joined other ruling bloc members of the committee at a news conference the same day, saying evidence had emerged that "the prosecution under Han Dong-hoon sought from the earliest stage of the investigation to link the nominee to Lee Jae-myung, then the opposition leader."
They cited a prosecution investigation report that appears to have been written on Nov. 28, 2022. The report included details of Kim's political background — his membership in the Processim group of lawmakers, his identification as a Lee ally and his joining Lee's 2021 presidential campaign — along with his work on the defense team for attorney Nam Wook in the Daejang-dong development case. The ruling bloc lawmakers argued the probe was targeted, noting that investigators examined political affiliations from the outset that had no direct bearing on allegations over approval of a clinical trial for a new drug.
They also questioned how the case was reassigned from the food and drug crime investigation division of the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office to its fifth criminal division. Kim Eui-kyeom said it was "a pet case that then-Minister Han Dong-hoon intervened in directly." A senior ruling bloc official said cutting Yong loose and saving Kim was being coordinated quietly between the party and the presidential office.
The Democratic Party issued three statements on the matter in the morning alone in defense of Kim. Spokesperson Shin Hyun-young cited the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's position that there was no favoritism in the approval of Genencell's clinical trial, calling the matter "a political attack that inflates a case closed without charges."
The People Power Party, meanwhile, is training its fire on Kim in the wake of Yong's withdrawal. Choi Bo-yoon, the party's chief spokesperson, described Yong's exit as a just outcome and said it was "only the beginning of cleaning up a personnel disaster." She then urged the government to withdraw Kim's nomination, saying he was next in line.
Han Dong-hoon, now an independent lawmaker, pushed back strongly against the Democratic Party's claim of a targeted investigation, saying he had never heard of such a thing. "Kim Seung-won was a nobody at the time. Who would run a targeted investigation on a nobody?" he said sarcastically. On suspicions that internal prosecution material had been leaked, he said he had not received it from the prosecution, while adding that "even if I had received it from the prosecution, it would not be a problem and it is worth protecting."
The National Assembly begins its confirmation hearings on the 14th with Kim Sung-soo, the nominee for Supreme Court justice. Hearings are scheduled on the 15th for Lee Hyung-il, nominee for deputy prime minister and minister of economy and finance, Kim Seung-won, nominee for justice minister, and Lee So-young, nominee for SMEs and startups minister; on the 16th for Kang Shin-chul, nominee for defense minister, and Hong Ji-sun, nominee for land, infrastructure and transport minister; and on the 17th for Choi Gil-soo, nominee for special inspector general.
