"Respectful and Close Junior"... "Would It Have Been Done If Not for an 'Oppa'?"

[Anchor]

Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hun, who has continuously raised allegations regarding nominee Kim Seung-won's lobbying of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, strongly pressured the nominee by mentioning another Democratic Party lawmaker and asking whether such favors would have been granted if not for an "oppa." In response, the Democratic Party has formed a dedicated team exclusively to counter Lawmaker Han.

This is a report by correspondent Kim Jin-u.

[Reporter]

Regarding Yang, who requested via phone calls and text messages back in 2021 that then-candidate Kim Seung-won ask the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to swiftly process clinical trial plan approvals for the COVID-19 new drug development firm Genencell, nominee Kim made the following remarks yesterday (September 7).

[Kim Seung-won/Nominee for Minister of Justice: It is true that I first met Yang as a customer at places like restaurants and cafes frequented by legal professionals, and I have maintained a relationship with her, respecting her as a successful female entrepreneur and treating her as a close junior.]

Nominee Kim also acknowledged that he had represented Yang as a legal counsel in her Labor Standards Act violation case.

According to the sentencing judgment at the time, Yang, who operated an entertainment establishment in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, was indicted on charges of failing to pay severance wages to hostesses who worked there between 2007 and 2010, and received a finalized suspended sentence in 2013.

Later, Yang took office as the CEO of Company K, a cosmetics and pharmaceutical company established in 2014.

According to prosecutors' indictment documents and other records, Yang, who made the requests regarding the drug approval to nominee Kim, is also a figure suspected by prosecutors of having received compensation from Genencell in the form of a 600 million won investment into her own Company K.

The battle has also escalated between nominee Kim and independent lawmaker Han Dong-hun, who has taken it upon himself to act as nominee Kim's sniper.

When nominee Kim targeted Lawmaker Han, claiming that "political offensives are being waged through the leakage of investigative materials," and demanded that he appear as a witness at the confirmation hearing, Lawmaker Han hit back by urging the National Assembly Speaker to appoint him as a confirmation committee member, while sharply criticizing nominee Kim and Yang.

[Lawmaker Han Dong-hun/Independent: Would they do that for you if you weren't an oppa? Should people without younger siblings live in sorrow? Is it impossible to run a pharmaceutical company without an oppa?]

The Democratic Party, which has formed a "Lawmaker Han Countermeasure Team," claimed that "Lawmaker Han cuts and selectively chooses materials piece by piece to exaggerate suspicions," calling it "devil's editing characteristic of political prosecutors."

(Camera Reporter: Lee Seung-hwan, Shin Dong-hwan | Video Editor: Wee Won-yang | Design: Lee Ga-jin)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.