"Han Dong-hoon Fabricated Transcript" vs. "Candidate Engaging in Press Censorship"

[Anchor]

The camp of nominee Kim Seung-won has claimed that independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon, who raised suspicions regarding lobbying related to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, fabricated relevant transcripts, and that media outlets are publishing distorted reports. In response, lawmaker Han fired back, stating, "They are even censoring the press."

Reporting from legal affairs specialist reporter Im Chanjong.

[Reporter]

Kim Seung-won, nominee for Minister of Justice, arrived at the confirmation hearing preparation office at around 8:24 AM today (September 10).

[Kim Seung-won / Nominee for Minister of Justice: ((Do you plan to directly address the suspicions that continue to be raised?)) Our preparation team is addressing them one by one, and we will comprehensively explain everything, and I will likely explain everything today as well.]

About five minutes later, nominee Kim's confirmation hearing preparation team released an official statement claiming that the transcript released by independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon was fabricated.

They argued that lawmaker Han released a phone conversation transcript between a person identified as a broker named Yang and former lawmaker Choi Jae-sung, but distorted the meaning of the conversation by deleting certain parts or changing their sequence.

They pointed out that sentences indicating the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety reacted positively to the drug in question were deleted to mislead people into thinking there was never a possibility of passing the review from the beginning, and that remarks to the effect of "just check why the review is being delayed" were also removed to make it look like a request for lobbying was made.

In the afternoon, nominee Kim's camp released another statement claiming that the phone call transcript between nominee Kim and Yang released by lawmaker Han was also "pieced together."

They also claimed that multiple media outlets are publishing distorted reports, demanding that the reported contents be corrected after verifying the original transcripts.

In response, lawmaker Han criticized nominee Kim's camp, stating, "They are even engaging in press censorship," and asking, "Which public office nominee in history has ever gone as far as censoring the press?"

Lawmaker Han also claimed that materials released by nominee Kim's camp today included a mention that nominee Kim was aware that Yang would receive a commission upon approval of the new drug—a detail that was contained in information he had not even disclosed.

(Video by Yang Hyun-chul | Video Editing by Choi Hye-ran)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.