"Han Dong-hoon Fabricated the Transcript" vs. "Candidate Is Censoring the Media"

[Anchor]

Nominee Kim Seung-won's side claimed that Representative Han Dong-hoon, who has raised suspicions regarding lobbying of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, fabricated the relevant transcript and that media outlets are publishing distorted reports. Representative Han fired back, stating, "They are even resorting to media censorship."

Senior Legal Reporter Im Chanjong has the details.

[Reporter]

Kim Seung-won, nominee for Minister of Justice, arrived at the personnel hearing preparation office at around 8:24 AM today (September 10).

[Kim Seung-won / Nominee for Minister of Justice: ((Do you plan to personally address the suspicions that continue to be raised?)) Our preparation team is addressing them one by one, and we will put everything together to explain it all, and I will probably explain everything today as well.]

About five minutes later, Nominee Kim's personnel hearing preparation team released a statement claiming that the transcript disclosed by independent Representative Han Dong-hoon was fabricated.

They claimed that Representative Han disclosed a telephone conversation transcript between a broker identified as Yang and former lawmaker Choi Jae-sung, but omitted certain parts or rearranged the order to distort the meaning of the conversation.

They pointed out that a sentence implying the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety showed a positive response to the drug in question was omitted to mislead the public into thinking there was never a possibility of passing the review from the beginning, and that a statement to the effect of "just check why the review is being delayed" was also omitted to make it look like a request for lobbying was made.

Nominee Kim's side released another statement in the afternoon, stating that the telephone conversation transcript between Nominee Kim and Yang disclosed by Representative Han was also spliced together.

They also claimed that multiple media outlets were reporting distorted articles and demanded that the reported contents be corrected after verifying the original transcript.

In response, Representative Han criticized Nominee Kim's side, saying, "They are even engaging in media censorship," and asking, "Which public office nominee in history has ever gone as far as media censorship?"

He also argued that the materials released by Nominee Kim's side today included a mention that Nominee Kim was aware Yang would receive a commission upon approval of the new drug, pointing out that details he had never even disclosed were now coming out.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
(Video by Yang Hyun-chul | Video Editing by Choi Hye-ran)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.