"Stabilizing New Criminal Justice System is My Calling"... PPP Critics Call Nominee "Spearhead for Dropping Indictments"

[Anchor]

We continue with news of a government reshuffle. Representative Kim Seung-won of the Democratic Party, who has been nominated as the new Minister of Justice, expressed his aspirations, stating that "stabilizing the new criminal justice system is an urgent calling." Meanwhile, the People Power Party dismissed the nominee as a spearhead aimed at dropping the indictments against President Lee Jae-myung.

First, report by Son Hyeong-an.

[Reporter]

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

Attending in his capacity as a Judiciary Committee member belonging to the Democratic Party, Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won stated that he bears a "heavy sense of responsibility" and named the stable implementation of the revised Criminal Procedure Act and other measures that he actively pushed for as his "calling."

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

However, the People Power Party launched a fierce offensive, highlighting the fact that nominee Kim served as co-representative of the "group to drop indictments in President Lee Jae-myung's case," which was launched last February, claiming that "this is an appointment aimed at forcing the dismissal of the president's trial."

[Chung Jeom-seok/People Power Party Floor Leader: They have decided to entrust the ministerial post of the primary department responsible for trial dismissal to the spearhead of indictment withdrawals. This is a total rejection of the demand for state affairs reform.]

Inside the People Power Party, claims also followed that nominee Kim "was an attorney for the Daejang-dong case."

The Democratic Party defended Kim, arguing 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 attorney," calling it a "malicious political maneuver."

[Han Byeong-do/Democratic Party Floor Leader: Representative Chang Dong-hyeok has started spreading false facts that he was a former Daejang-dong attorney. You couldn't even write fiction like this.]

Nominee Kim's side released a statement acknowledging that his name was indeed included in the defense counsel for Nam Wook's attorney act violation case in May 2015, but explained that after meeting him once as a client, he resigned in July of the same year. They stated that he has never acted as defense counsel for the main trial regarding the 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 that he conspired with private developers such as 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.

(Video reporting: Lee Seung-hwan, Shin Dong-hwan | Video editing: Chang Hyun-ki | Design: Lee Jong-jung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.