Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won on the 15th directly rebutted allegations that a care center for people with developmental disabilities, where his wife and son work, amounts to a family business. At times he appeared to choke up while responding. Explaining how his son came to work at the center, Kim said, "This was absolutely not done for gain or to make money."
At the confirmation hearing held by the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, Kim said of the Korea Child Development Center, where his wife works, "Parents of children with developmental disabilities formed a cooperative, a parent serves as its head, and the parents decide everything, including operations and my wife's pay and working conditions." He added, "There is no profit that comes back to my wife."
The People Power Party had earlier raised the family business allegations, arguing that the center received preferential treatment in being selected as a provider of activity support services for people with developmental disabilities in Suwon, and pointing to the fact that the nominee's wife and two children all work there. Rep. Joo Jin-woo of the People Power Party released an audio recording of the nominee's wife that day, alleging that the city of Suwon had accommodated the center during the review process.
Kim countered that "there was no preferential treatment whatsoever." Describing the care facility in Yongin where his wife previously worked, he said, "It sat at the end of a valley, so few people came by, and many residents objected to the children moving about." He continued, "When the director could no longer keep it running and closed it down, parents of children with developmental disabilities set up a social cooperative themselves so the children could continue to be cared for." The center later learned of vacant space at Dongnam Health University, signed a formal contract and moved to Suwon, he said, adding that the number of users rose only because access improved and that no favoritism was involved.
Kim's eyes welled up as he explained why his son works in developmental disability care at the same center as his mother. "From the time my wife worked in Yongin, she began caring for these children when they were four, five, six, seven years old, and on weekends she would bring them to our home to sleep over so their parents could rest," he said. "The parents told me they entrusted the work to my son as someone they could trust with these children if they themselves die later, or if my wife loses her strength or passes away." He went on, "As a father, since he graduated from Yonsei University and is studying in a master's program, I would like him to work somewhere better, or study more and become a professor. Seeing him accept his mother's wishes and take up caring for children with developmental disabilities is both heartbreaking and admirable."
Kim also spoke of the hardships his wife endured over years of caring for people with severe developmental disabilities. "When I was practicing law, I would see my wife with so many wounds — bites, scratches, pinch marks," he said. "Children who at first could not control their bowels now skate and swim, after my wife cared for them devotedly for 10 years."
"This is not a family cooperative," he said, stressing again, "My son did this so that these children can continue to receive care even when they turn 20 or 30 — absolutely not for gain or to make money."
