Kim Seung-won, Justice Ministerial Nominee, Says He Is 'Sorry for Causing Concern'

Kim Seung-won, nominee for Minister of Justice, addressed various suspicions surrounding him today (the 11th), stating, "As a politician, I am truly sorry for causing concern to the public."

Arriving at his confirmation hearing preparation office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, today, Nominee Kim stated, "I will make sure to explain the details thoroughly at the upcoming confirmation hearing."

When asked about the circumstances behind hiring the son of Senior Judge Jeong, who appeared in allegations of lobbying for clinical trial approval of a COVID-19 treatment, as a legislative assistant in his lawmaker office, Kim replied, "Because I have nothing to hide, we conducted an open interview and assigned him the role of legislative assistant."

He explained, "I understand that a legislative assistant is not a regular employee, but rather someone who assists with National Assembly duties," adding, "As I recall, he worked hard and went through a lot while receiving only about 1 million won a month."

He added, "If there was anything to hide, these are all publicly disclosed records," and "I understand he enlisted in the military after finishing the work."

Regarding suspicions of lobbying the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety over clinical trial approvals, he maintained his previous stance that he was merely forwarding a public interest grievance.

Nominee Kim argued, "A small company was unable to proceed with procedures due to pressure from a multinational corporation, so the request was to find out why and resolve such unfairness."

He explained that according to the data checked at the time, clinical trials were already underway overseas as well, and since both ruling and opposition parties and the government were striving to develop treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic, he judged it acceptable to forward the grievance.

He stated, "Passing it on to the Minister of Food and Drug Safety just once and exchanging a text message or two is all there was," adding, "I judged that that level of action was fully acceptable as handling a grievance."

Nominee Kim did not answer questions about whether an official public notice was issued when hiring the legislative assistant or how he viewed additional recordings containing suspicions that he connected a broker named Yang with Senior Judge Jeong, and entered the office.

Nominee Kim also expressed his intention to devote himself to reform tasks if appointed as minister.

He said, "Up to now, I have worked on various tasks such as media reform, prosecution reform, and the revision of the Commercial Act for the normalization of the capital market," adding, "With that mindset, if I become the Minister of Justice, I want to thoroughly devote myself to reformative work for the people."

He further emphasized, "I will truly do my utmost to ensure that the new criminal justice system settles in well without causing inconvenience to the public."

Nominee Kim's National Assembly confirmation hearing is scheduled for the 15th.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.