"Settling New Criminal Justice System is My Calling"… "Spearhead for Dropping Indictments"

[Anchor]

We continue with news of a government reshuffle. Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Seung-won, nominated as the new Minister of Justice, stated that "the urgent calling is to firmly settle the new criminal justice system." Meanwhile, the People Power Party criticized Kim as the vanguard for dropping the indictment against President Lee Jae-myung.

First, reporter Son Hyeong-an has the details.

[Reporter]

This morning (the 31st), at a subcommittee of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee.

Attending as a member of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee affiliated with the Democratic Party, Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won expressed a "heavy sense of responsibility" and cited the stable implementation of the revised Criminal Procedure Act, which he had actively promoted, as his "calling."

[Kim Seung-won / Nominee for Minister of Justice: I believe that the most urgent calling is to ensure that the new criminal justice system, the first in 70 years, successfully takes root in South Korea.]

However, the People Power Party launched a fierce offensive, highlighting the fact that nominee Kim served as co-representative of the "Gathering for Dropping the Indictment in President Lee Jae-myung's Case," which was launched last February, calling the appointment a move to "force through the dismissal of the president's trial."

[Jung Jum-shik / Floor Leader of the People Power Party: They have decided to hand the ministry in charge of canceling trials over to the spearhead for dropping indictments. This is a total rejection of the public's demand for state affairs overhaul.]

Inside the People Power Party, claims also emerged that nominee Kim had served as "the attorney for the Daejang-dong case."

The Democratic Party defended Kim, asserting that he is the right person to lead the transition of the criminal justice system.

They hit back at the claim that he was a "former Daejang-dong defense attorney," calling it a "slanderous political maneuver."

[Han Byung-do / Floor Leader of the Democratic Party: Representative Jang Dong-hyrec has started spreading false information that he is a former Daejang-dong defense attorney. This is fiction of the highest order.]

Nominee Kim's side released a statement acknowledging that his name was indeed included in the defense team for Nam Wook's Attorney-at-Law Act violation case in May 2015, but explained that after a single client visit, he resigned in July of the same year, clarifying that he never acted as a defense counsel for the main Daejang-dong development corruption case, which has been under investigation and trial since 2021.

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Nam was indicted in 2015 on charges of receiving 830 million won from initial Daejang-dong developers under the guise of political lobbying and was acquitted the following year. However, regarding charges of conspiring with private developers like Kim Man-bae to rake in a total of 780 billion won in illicit profits through the Daejang-dong development project, he was sentenced to four years in prison in the first trial last year, and his appeal is currently underway.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
(Video Reported by Lee Seung-hwan and Shin Dong-hwan | Video Edited by Jang Hyun-ki | Design by Lee Jong-jung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.