Kim Seung-won: "Settling New Criminal Justice System is Urgent Mission... Never Acted as Counsel in Daejang-dong Case"

Representative Kim Seung-won of the Democratic Party, who has been nominated as Minister of Justice, stated, "I believe that successfully settling the new criminal justice system—the first in 70 years—in South Korea is the most urgent mission (if appointed as minister)."

Meeting with reporters prior to the meeting of the 1st Subcommittee for Legislative Review of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, which he chairs at the National Assembly, nominee Kim stated on the 31st, "I feel a heavy sense of responsibility in being nominated as the Minister of Justice for President Lee Jae-myung's People's Sovereignty Government."

Nominee Kim emphasized, "I will do my best to restore the Ministry of Justice to an institution that faithfully protects the socially vulnerable as a human rights protection agency stipulated by our Constitution," adding, "We will successfully pass various bills that the Ministry of Justice needs to supplement and gather social consensus."

As there have been demands for the dismissal of the indictment in President Lee Jae-myung's case, his stance on the matter drew attention. However, after delivering a brief statement, nominee Kim entered the subcommittee meeting room without taking questions.

Nominee Kim stated, "Regarding pending issues, I will organize my thoughts and respond after grasping the current status of the Ministry of Justice."

Meanwhile, regarding claims labeling him as a "former counsel for the Daejang-dong case," nominee Kim released a statement explaining, "I have never acted as a counsel for the main trial of the Daejang-dong development corruption case, which has been under investigation and trial since 2021."

Nominee Kim stated, "It is true that my name was listed on the defense counsel team for lawyer Nam Wook's violation of the Attorney-at-Law Act in 2015, but all attorneys belonging to the law firm (where I was at the time) were formally listed on the counsel designation document for Nam."

He added, "At the request of the senior partner of the law firm I belonged to, visiting and providing legal consultation to Nam once at the early stage of the case was all I did, and I resigned as counsel in July 2015," further noting, "Claims that I defended the main case as counsel are contrary to the facts."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.