Candidate Dismisses "Dad's Chance" Hiring Allegations; Former Aide Discloses Different Process

[Anchor]

As we exclusively reported yesterday (the 10th), Kim Seung-won, nominee for Minister of Justice, hired the son of Presiding Judge Jung, who had dismissed the arrest warrant for the founder of Genencell, to his lawmaker's office. Nominee Kim directly stated his position today regarding these allegations of preferential treatment, or a "dad's chance." He stated that he has a clear conscience and that the hire was made through an open interview. To check the validity of this explanation, we directly interviewed a former aide who was in charge of the recruitment process at the lawmaker's office back then, and they provided a different account.

Our first report is an exclusive by reporter Shin Yong-il.

[Reporter]

Minister of Justice nominee Kim Seung-won arrives at the confirmation hearing preparation office.

Regarding SBS's exclusive report yesterday that he hired the son of Judge Jung—who was in charge of warrants and dismissed the arrest warrant for Genencell founder Kang Se-chan in December 2023—as a legislative assistant at his lawmaker's office, Kim maintained that he has nothing to hide.

[Kim Seung-won / Nominee for Minister of Justice: Because I have a clear conscience, I publicly conducted an interview and assigned him the role of a legislative assistant.]

His stance is that there was no so-called "dad's chance" involved, as the recruitment process—which brought Judge Jung's son into Kim's office starting in June 2024—was conducted openly.

However, the former aide who handled the recruitment at the lawmaker's office at the time gave a different response to the SBS reporting team.

[Former Aide at Lawmaker Kim Seung-won's Office: The lawmaker or the aides make recommendations. Then we ask them to send us a resume.]

The former aide explained that the recruitment process simply involved receiving a recommended resume rather than posting a separate job opening and selecting from a pool of applicants, followed by a brief, interview-like meeting between the recruitment-in-charge aide and the applicant.

Given this, the official noted that it is difficult to consider it an "open interview" as mentioned by Nominee Kim.

[Former Aide at Lawmaker Kim Seung-won's Office: It wasn't the kind of open interview where you gather dozens of people like they do at regular corporations.]

However, this official also explained that Jung was not given any special favors while working as a legislative assistant and that he was remembered as having worked diligently.

In an additional official statement released today, Nominee Kim's side stated that legislative assistant Jung worked three days a week to assist with office duties as previously agreed upon, and was only paid around 1 million won per month to cover actual expenses, adding that no excessive economic benefits were provided.

(Camera: Yang Hyun-chul | Video Editing: Kim Ho-jin)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.