Exclusive: Son of Judge in 'Three-Way Selfie' Worked at Lawmaker Kim Seung-won's Office

[Anchor]

Meanwhile, he is one of the figures in the three-way selfie with the judge who dismissed the arrest warrant for the founder of a new pharmaceutical company. According to our reporting, the judge's son was hired at Rep. Kim's office a few months after the warrant dismissal.

Reporting by Shin Yong-il.

[Reporter]

In December 2023, the arrest warrant requested against Kang Se-chan, founder of the COVID-19 new drug company Genencell, on charges including attempted fraud, was dismissed.

The warrant judge in charge of the review at the time was Senior Judge Jung of the Seoul Western District Court. A photo of him taken together with candidate Kim and a businessman surnamed Yang on the 3rd was recently made public.

Regarding this, candidate Kim stated that he accidentally ran into Senior Judge Jung and Yang at a private gathering in February 2022 and has neither met nor contacted them since.

However, SBS reporting confirmed that in the first half of 2024, Senior Judge Jung's college-student son worked as a legislative assistant in the office of Kim, who was a lawmaker at the time.

The son was hired at candidate Kim's office a few months after Senior Judge Jung dismissed the warrant, a point that directly contradicts the explanation candidate Kim provided immediately after the photo was made public.

In response to an SBS inquiry asking about any connection between the dismissal of the warrant for Genencell's Kang and the employment of Senior Judge Jung's son, candidate Kim's side stated, "Senior Judge Jung's son experienced work at the lawmaker's office as a legislative assistant following the general procedures of a lawmaker's activities, and it was not even an official position." They added that it is "clear that no causal relationship is recognized between the warrant dismissal and the legislative assistant work, and claims suggesting it was a favor are unfounded."

Regarding the criticism that this contradicts the explanation given after the photo was released, they explained, "It was a misunderstanding caused by insufficient communication due to the candidate's personal circumstances, and there were no facts of contacting or discussing specific cases with Senior Judge Jung."

(Camera Input: Yang Hyun-chul | Video Editing: Kim Jun-hee | Design: Jeon Yu-geun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.