[Anchor]
Following lawmaker Yong Hye-in's resignation, the Democratic Party appeared focused on defending Ministerial Nominee for Justice Kim Seung-won ahead of his hearing the day after tomorrow (the 15th). While the Democratic Party claimed that the prosecution under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration conducted a targeted investigation into Nominee Kim, the People Power Party launched an offensive, stating, "The next one to resign is Nominee Kim."
Reporter Kim Bo-mi has the details.
[Reporter]
Pan-ruling camp lawmakers on the Legislation and Judiciary Committee held a press conference today and claimed that the prosecution's investigation into Nominee Kim Seung-won's alleged lobbying of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety is a "targeted investigation by the prosecution under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration."
[Seo Young-gyo / Democratic Party Lawmaker (Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee): It can be seen as an investigation with the sole purpose of tearing him apart to the core, with the answer already predetermined.]
The People Power Party pointed out that Nominee Kim hired the son of Judge Jeong, who dismissed the arrest warrant for the founder of Genencell—a new drug development company suspected of lobbying—as a legislative assistant. They claimed this is the "Cho Kuk scandal of 2026," sharpening their attack by saying Nominee Kim is next in line to resign after lawmaker Yong Hye-in.
[Choi Bo-yun / Senior Spokesperson for the People Power Party: This is yet another decalcomanie of unfairness echoing the Cho Kuk scandal.]
People Power Party lawmaker Joo Jin-woo raised suspicions that a social cooperative where Nominee Kim's family members work was selected as a service provider by Suwon City in 2022. He alleged that the judges at the time treated it as a re-designated organization despite being a new one, granting it bonus points while intentionally giving competing organizations zero points in certain categories.
[Joo Jin-woo / People Power Party Lawmaker: Evaluation documents prove that Nominee Kim's family cooperative was given preferential selection through the manipulation of evaluation scores...]
Nominee Kim's side refuted the claims, stating, "Calling it a family cooperative is a clear distortion," and adding, "We have no knowledge whatsoever of what kind of process Suwon City went through to conduct the evaluation."
Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Dong-ah, who filed a complaint against independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon over suspicions regarding the "leak of investigative documents" related to Nominee Kim, appeared before the police today as the complainant.
Lawmaker Han fired back, saying, "While the police sat on the Jeju missing persons case for months, they only conduct investigations that suit the regime's tastes."
National Assembly confirmation hearings for a total of seven candidates, including five ministerial nominees, will be held from tomorrow through the 18th, with Nominee Kim's hearing scheduled for the day after tomorrow.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
(Reported by Lee Seung-hwan and Shin Dong-hwan | Video by Jeon Min-gyu | Graphics by Park Tae-young)
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