"Clearly a Solicitation," Secretary Testified; Message Even Mentioned 'Outflow of National Wealth'

Regarding the matter where Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won requested expedited processing from the head of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety regarding pharmaceutical firm Genencell's clinical trial for a COVID-19 treatment, it has been confirmed that the secretary to the food and drug safety minister at the time testified to prosecutors, "There were no solicitation contacts from lawmakers other than Rep. Kim Seung-won."

Regarding the text message sent by Kim, the secretary testified, "It is clearly a solicitation message."

According to sources in the legal community, public official A, who was the secretary to then-Minister of Food and Drug Safety Kim Gang-lip, was questioned as a witness by prosecutors in 2023. When asked whether lawmakers often contacted the agency with solicitations, A reportedly replied, "To the best of my memory, there was no one other than Rep. Kim Seung-won."

The issue stems from a text message that Kim sent to former Minister Kim's official work phone on October 12, 2021.

Kim wrote, "Please ask the working-level staff in charge to process it a bit quickly. The company is Genencell. I am mentioning this because I am also concerned about the outflow of national wealth."

This text was forwarded to former Minister Kim's personal mobile phone through secretary A 18 minutes later, and was subsequently passed on to working-level officials at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in charge of clinical trials.

A said that they also sent a message to the division director in charge, stating, "Rep. Kim Seung-won sent a separate text," and that former Minister Kim instructed to "look into it, but make sure that such talk does not come from them next time."

Prosecutors viewed this as circumstances indicating that former Minister Kim instructed the secretary to forward Kim's text message to the relevant department.

A explained the situation at the time in more detail to prosecutors, stating, "It is clear that the message sent by the lawmaker was a solicitation," adding, "because it contained an absurd remark saying, 'I am also concerned about the outflow of national wealth.'"

However, regarding what specific instructions former Minister Kim gave at the time, A answered, "I do not remember."

On the same day, former Minister Kim sent a reply to Kim, saying, "Regarding the Genencell matter you expressed concern about, we are currently working with the company on supplementing data, among other things. I have forwarded it to the working-level staff so that it will be properly looked after."

Two weeks after Kim sent the text message, on October 26, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved Genencell's clinical trial plan for its COVID-19 treatment.

(Reported by Kim Min-jeong | Video by Lee Yu-jin | Graphics by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.