Hearing Held Today Without Witnesses… "New Drug Administered to 93 People"

[Anchor]

The confirmation hearing for Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won, who is engulfed in suspicions of lobbying the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and providing a reward-based hire, is being held today (Sept. 15). There are many suspicions that need to be asked directly to the individuals involved, but due to the opposition of the Democratic Party, not a single witness will attend.

For our first news today, reporter Ha Jeongyeon has the story.

[Reporter]

Yesterday, a day ahead of the National Assembly confirmation hearing, Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won repeatedly gave this response to reporters on his way to work.

[Kim Seung-won / Justice Minister Nominee (Yesterday): (How do you plan to explain the suspicions of lobbying, etc., at the hearing?) I will explain everything tomorrow. If I say various things right now, well….]

While Gender Equality and Family Minister nominee Yong Hye-in stepped down voluntarily the day before yesterday, the People Power Party pressured that Kim's nomination should be withdrawn even now.

[Jang Dong-hyeok / People Power Party Leader: Are you trying to present the public, ahead of Chuseok, with a 'comprehensive set of crimes'? The nomination of Kim Seung-won must be withdrawn immediately, even now.]

The Democratic Party dismissed it as groundless false agitation and vowed to "defend nominee Kim."

[Han Byeong-do / Democratic Party Floor Leader: Even if you repeat ' mud-slinging' style suspicions a hundred times, false agitation cannot become verification.]

The core issue in verifying nominee Kim is the "suspicion of lobbying the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety."

The question is whether nominee Kim's action in 2021—requesting then-Ministry of Food and Drug Safety Minister Kim Gang-lip for "fast-track processing" regarding the approval of Genencell's new drug clinical trial plan—was appropriate.

Suspicions of "illegal lobbying" and counterarguments that it was "delivering a public interest petition" are clashing.

It was additionally revealed that in 2022, after Genencell's new drug received approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the new drug or a placebo was administered to 93 COVID-19 patients during the clinical trial process.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety stated that no serious adverse drug reaction cases have been reported to date, but as Genencell is suspected of having omitted or manipulated data during the approval process, controversies surrounding the safety of clinical trials on humans are expected to grow.

The fact that nominee Kim employed as a legislative assistant the son of Judge Jeong, who dismissed the arrest warrant for the founder of Genencell, is also an issue.

Due to the Democratic Party's refusal to adopt witnesses, today's hearing will proceed without witnesses, and attention is focused on how much of the suspicions raised against nominee Kim will be clarified.

(Reported by Kim Yong-woo | Video by Lee Seunghee | Graphics by Hwang Seyeon)

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