'Lenient Investigation' into Daughter's Ghostwritten Paper vs. 'Sponsoring Bill' for Son

[Anchor]

At yesterday's (October 12) parliamentary audit of the National Police Agency, ruling party lawmakers launched an intensive offensive, bringing up cases related to independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon once again.

Here is reporter Jeong Yunsik.

[Reporter]

The National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee held a parliamentary audit of the National Police Agency.

Questions from Democratic Party lawmakers focused on allegations of "fabricated credentials" during the high school years of independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon's daughter, an issue that was also raised during his confirmation hearing in 2022 when he was a nominee for justice minister.

[Kim Young-bae / Democratic Party Lawmaker: Regarding the allegations of her fabricated credentials, I called it a "Han Dong-hoon version of 'SKY Castle'."]

Ruling party lawmakers sharpened their criticism, claiming that the police conducted a "lenient investigation" after looking into the ghostwriting allegations concerning lawmaker Han's daughter for one year and eight months.

[Youn Kun-young / Democratic Party Lawmaker: There was not a single search and seizure or warrant request. Did you neglect it because it involved a formidable justice minister?]

[Kim Jong-cheol / Acting Commissioner General of the National Police Agency: If new facts emerge, we would perhaps not rule out the possibility of reinvestigating.]

Democratic Party lawmaker Kang Deuk-gu also went on the offensive, arguing that allegations that lawmaker Han's daughter inflated her high school volunteer service records in 2020 were not properly investigated either.

[Kang Deuk-gu / Democratic Party Lawmaker: The request for international mutual legal assistance was rejected. The political prosecution's sword stopped in front of Minister Han Dong-hoon's family.]

Lawmaker Han, who previously maintained that there was nothing improper regarding the ghostwriting allegations, released a notice of non-referral from December 2023 in which the police concluded "no charges" regarding the volunteer activities, stressing that he would take legal action against the spread of false information.

Previously, lawmaker Han had criticized ruling party lawmakers, claiming they had sponsored a bill similar to a "plagiarism prevention" measure drafted by Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok's son through high school club activities in 2022, and accused them of "privatizing public office as National Assembly members."

This was an allegation that had also been raised by the opposition party in June last year when Representative Kim was a nominee for prime minister, but Representative Kang, who was the lead sponsor of the bill, countered that "I only introduced it because the proposal was good."

(Video by Lee Seung-hwan | Video Editing by Wi Won-yang)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.