[Anchor]
Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon has released additional call transcripts regarding Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won's alleged lobbying of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. While Han claimed it was a case of "successful lobbying" that reached working-level officials, the nominee's camp fired back, accusing Han of cutting the transcripts out of context for a political offensive.
Reporter Kim Kwan-jin has the details.
[Reporter]
Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon claimed there are additional call transcripts between Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won and a broker surnamed Yang regarding allegations of solicitation for the approval trials of COVID-19 treatment developer GenenCell.
According to Han, during their first phone call on October 12, 2021—two weeks before the approval of the new drug clinical trials—Nominee Kim asked Yang which division was in charge at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, saying, "We need to speed up Phase 3 approval and see the results anyway. I will ask the Minister to look into it personally."
In a second call, when Yang reportedly said, "It won't stop at the section chief level," Kim replied, "It's blocked at the section chief level? Understood," Han claimed.
Han also claimed that a text message sent by the secretary of the then-Minister of Food and Drug Safety to the division chief in charge stated, "The Minister will look into it, but make sure such talk doesn't come from that side again," characterizing it as "successful lobbying that reached the working-level staff."
Nominee Kim's camp countered that Han was "splicing the transcripts to turn a routine inquiry into pressure for approval," stating that "what the nominee requested was merely checking and reporting on the review status."
The Democratic Party also demanded that the origins of the investigative materials, text messages, and transcripts be revealed.
[Kim Dong-a / Democratic Party Lawmaker: We are filing a complaint with the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials against independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon and unnamed providers for illegally acquiring (non-public investigative records) and misusing them for political strife and political maneuvering.]
Meanwhile, the People Power Party raised separate allegations related to a social cooperative where members of the nominee's family work.
Lawmaker Joo Jin-woo claimed that after the cooperative, headed by the nominee's spouse, relocated in 2022 from Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, to Suwon—Nominee Kim's constituency—it was selected as a service provider for developmental disabilities activities in Suwon, causing government voucher revenues, which previously did not exist, to surge to approximately 880 million won over four years.
[Joo Jin-woo / People Power Party Lawmaker: The spouse and two children were consecutively employed by this cooperative and pocketed over 330 million won in salaries.]
In response, Nominee Kim's camp stated that the selection of the Suwon service provider was determined through an open recruitment and screening process, that his children came to work there because high-intensity labor makes it difficult to secure staff, and that the claims of preferential voucher revenue benefits are untrue.
(Video reporting: Lee Seung-hwan, Video editing: Jang Hyun-ki, Design: Seo Seung-hyun, Choi Jae-young)
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