"Targeted Investigation," "Next is Kim Seung-won"... Confirmation Hearing Tomorrow

[Anchor]

Following the withdrawal of lawmaker Yong Hye-in, all eyes are now focused on Minister of Justice nominee Kim Seung-won. His confirmation hearing will be held tomorrow (the 15th).

Reporter Kim Bo-mi has the details.

[Reporter]

Pan-ruling camp lawmakers on the Legislation and Judiciary Committee held a press conference yesterday, claiming that the prosecution's investigation into nominee Kim Seung-won's alleged "lobbying of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety" is a "targeted investigation by the prosecution under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration."

[Seo Young-kyo / Democratic Party Lawmaker: This can be seen as an investigation with a predetermined conclusion aimed at tearing him apart completely.]

The People Power Party claimed that nominee Kim's employment of the son of Judge Jung, who dismissed the arrest warrant for the founder of Genencel—a new drug development company suspected of lobbying—as the "Cho Kuk scandal of 2026," sharpening their attacks by asserting that nominee Kim is next in line to resign after lawmaker Yong Hye-in.

[Choi Bo-yoon / Chief Spokesperson for the People Power Party: This is yet another decalcomanie of unfairness echoing the Cho Kuk scandal.]

People Power Party lawmaker Joo Jin-woo raised suspicions that a social cooperative employing members of nominee Kim's family was selected as a service provider by Suwon City, Gyeonggi Province, back in 2022. He alleged that at the time, evaluators treated it as a redesignated organization despite it being a new one, granting it bonus points while intentionally giving competing organizations scores of zero in certain categories.

[Joo Jin-woo / People Power Party Lawmaker: It has been proven through evaluation documents that Kim Seung-won's family cooperative was preferentially selected through manipulation of evaluation scores...]&br />
Nominee Kim's side refuted the claims, stating, "Calling it a family cooperative is a clear distortion," and adding, "We have no knowledge whatsoever of what processes Suwon City went through internally to conduct the evaluation."

Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Dong-a, who filed a complaint against independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon over suspicions regarding the "leak of investigative records" related to nominee Kim, appeared before the police yesterday in his capacity as the complainant.

Lawmaker Han fired back, saying, "While the police buried the Jeju missing person case for months, they only conduct investigations that suit the tastes of the regime."

Parliamentary confirmation hearings for a total of seven candidates, including five ministerial nominees, will be held starting today through the 18th, with nominee Kim's hearing scheduled for tomorrow.

(Camera Reporter: Lee Seung-hwan, Shin Dong-hwan | Video Editing: Jeon Min-gyu | Design: Park Tae-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.