The People Power Party is tightening its offensive even after Rep. Kim Seung-won of the Democratic Party stepped down as nominee for justice minister.
Lee Man-hee, chairman of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, and Baek Jong-heon, the People Power Party's committee liaison, led a group of eight party lawmakers to the headquarters of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, on the 21st, demanding the submission of records related to allegations of lobbying over a new drug's clinical trial.
The lawmakers entered the building holding signs that read, "We condemn the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for bypassing the National Assembly and refusing to submit records," then moved to a large conference room to meet with Commissioner Oh Yu-kyoung and other senior ministry officials.
In his opening remarks, Lee said, "There is much that needs to be clarified about the suspicions over the clinical trial approval that surfaced during the vetting of the former nominee, but the ministry has been quite uncooperative, so we came here to point that out." He added that a lawmaker's request for records is "the minimum required to protect the lives and safety of the public," calling the visit a first step toward uncovering the truth and saying the matter had not ended with the former nominee's resignation.
Oh responded, "We said we would cooperate in submitting the records, but it appears we fell short, and for that I am sorry." She said, "We will take today's views to heart and cooperate as faithfully as possible."
After the meeting, Lee and the other People Power Party lawmakers told reporters that the ministry has refused to hand over records on the grounds that doing so could leak corporate business secrets, but said they found that reasoning hard to accept and repeatedly stressed that the records should be disclosed.
Kim was named justice minister nominee on the 30th of last month but resigned on the 19th as controversy persisted over the alleged lobbying on the clinical trial. The allegation centers on claims that Kim, at the request of a broker surnamed Yang, asked then-Commissioner Kim Ganglip in 2021 to approve a clinical trial of Genencell's COVID-19 treatment.
