[Joo Young-jin's News Briefing]

When citing this interview, please credit the program 'SBS <Joo Young-jin's News Briefing>.' Copyright belongs to SBS.

■ Broadcast: SBS <Joo Young-jin's News Briefing> Mon–Fri (14:00–15:20)
■ Host: Anchor Joo Young-jin
■ Guest: Rep. Kim Hyun of the Democratic Party
--------------------------------------------

● Interview with Rep. Kim Hyun of the Democratic Party

"Network Act amendment aims to severely punish acts that obstruct freedom of expression"
"Network Act amendment explicitly specifies the purpose of seeking financial gain"
"For the DP, this is a crucial time to build the foundation for consecutive terms in power"
"The party's 'exhumation debate' likely makes the public feel embarrassed under the current circumstances"
"Losing the local and by-elections in winnable districts is an undeniable fact"
"The passage of bills related to public livelihood fell short of expectations"
"The evaluation of the local elections is the barometer for this national convention"
"Science and Tech Committee passed the 'AI Framework Act' in 2024... laying the groundwork for the 'Three Mega Projects'"
"The party has formed a committee to support the 'Three Mega Projects'... National Assembly must open quickly"
--------------------------------------------

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: We are joined by Representative Kim Hyun of the Democratic Party. Welcome.

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: Hello.

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: I originally planned to start with questions about the Democratic Party's national convention, but since you held a press conference today, let's start there. The amendment to the Information and Communications Network Act takes effect starting today, and the People Power Party is already claiming that it is a "muzzling law" and demanding its revision. As a Democratic Party lawmaker, what are your thoughts on this?

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: Actually, when we were discussing the law, if they had such concerns, they could have proposed their own bill and reviewed it together. However, the People Power Party did not propose any amendment at the time, nor did they participate in the discussions. It is a situation where they refused to work when asked, and are now showering criticism on those who did the work. The background that led us to decide that we must pass this amendment is that a certain newspaper continuously spread the claim that "the National Election Commission mobilized Chinese people to rig the election." Secondly, we saw claims in a daily newspaper that "the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement was perpetrated by the North Korean military," which was then reproduced on YouTube. In addition, over the past two to three years under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, such information has been constantly generated under the guise of religion or by individuals posing as lecturers. Furthermore, on some YouTube channels, attacks on celebrities or other YouTubers have even driven them to make extreme choices. Because our society has become too chaotic and conflicts have intensified, we established the concept of "false manipulated information." For cases where the court has clearly ruled that the information is not true and that the content constitutes an illegal act, punitive damages of up to five times can be sought.

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: Of the damages incurred?

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: Yes, five times the amount of damages. And then, a fine of up to 1 billion won for such aggravated offenses.

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: For the media outlet that distributed it?

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: Correct. So, it is not "muzzling" as the People Power Party claims. Rather, it is a law aimed at firmly establishing the realm of freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution and severely punishing acts that obstruct that freedom of expression.

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: Hearing your explanation, some parts make sense. To be clear, is the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) the one making the primary determination on whether something constitutes false manipulated information?

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: No, it could be the entities that create the content. For example, content providers like Naver or Kakao will evaluate it themselves on a six-month basis, and the KCC will manage it. They do not interfere. We have made it clear that the policy is to support but not interfere. In the law, we first built a system to ensure self-regulatory capabilities when it is confirmed that content is false and manipulated, targeting YouTubers with over 1 million subscribers or content creators with over 100,000 subscribers who continuously distribute non-factual information for economic gain. Nevertheless, we have put in place double and triple control mechanisms, including self-regulation and deliberation functions, to heavily punish illegal information that has been legally determined as such. We have also established organizations and mechanisms, such as a transparency center under the KCC, to receive reports and discuss these issues together.

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: During presidential elections, or whenever there is a major election, there are instances where one side attacks the opponent, the opposing candidate, or the opposing camp, suddenly releasing something with the intent of "Did you not know about this?" so that the public can find out, right?

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: Raising suspicions.

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: Raising suspicions—there is very little time left until the election. From the media's perspective, they naturally have to verify and report on it, but the nature of most media outlets is to quote the party's claims as they are. They report that a certain party claimed there are various suspicions against a certain candidate, and these are the suspicions, and this is the basis. In response, the candidate's side and the party, who are the subjects of the suspicions, refute them, saying it is not true for this or that reason. After that, they work hard to cover the story to prove the facts, but it is difficult to do this coverage within a limited time. But as time passes, there is a possibility that the raised suspicions turn out to be untrue, and in such cases...

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: Those cases are regulated by general election law violations or existing general laws. This Information and Communications Network Act applies when it is done continuously, repeatedly, and with the purpose of seeking financial gain.

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: With the purpose of seeking financial gain.

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: Yes. That is explicitly specified. So, this applies only when all three conditions are met. For simple allegations like the ones you mentioned, or things that happen during election periods, those would go to civil or criminal cases under election law violations or existing laws, not this Information and Communications Network Act. You can view this as strictly defining what false manipulated information is and looking into that.

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: I see. Since this law takes effect starting today, we will have to watch with interest to see what cases will become the very first subjects of review. For legacy media or existing media outlets, they won't really have to do anything differently from what they have been doing, right?

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: Yes, that is correct.

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: Just faithfully verifying the facts.

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: And if they issue a correction or find out through additional coverage that it is not true, they can just correct it. If they don't correct it and continue to persist and raise issues, then that is when it becomes controversial.

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: I believe that is why you held a press conference this morning with that intent.

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: That is correct.

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: You are a member of the Democratic Party. Who will be the next leader of the Democratic Party?

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: Who it will be is for the party members to decide. Since the election commission decided today to conduct a preferential vote reflecting 70% of the votes from dues-paying members and 30% from public opinion polls, I believe public sentiment and party sentiment will decide.

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: However, it seems to be overheating already. There are attacks on former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok's departure from the Democratic Party to join candidate Chung Mong-joon's camp in 2002. Also, a fellow Democratic Party lawmaker asked why former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok did not show up for the vote on the resolution to lift the emergency martial law, which actually surprised me. This was originally claimed by Representative Han Dong-hoon, but Representative Lee Sung-yoon of the Democratic Party asked former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok to explain, and Representative Choi Min-hee also made critical remarks about former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok regarding his actions during the Roh Moo-hyun and Chung Mong-joon unification. Because of this, there are point-outs that the Democratic Party's national convention has turned into a so-called "exhumation debate." What do you think about this?

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: During a national convention, it is natural to verify a person's past, present, and future, look into controversies surrounding their identity, and expose weaknesses as much as possible to gain an advantage. Since such things have always happened, I believe they will be evaluated based on that. However, we have established democratic governments four times through Kim Dae-jung, Roh Moo-hyun, Moon Jae-in, and now President Lee Jae-myung. In that process, we achieved consecutive terms with Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, but failed twice. What is most important now is that after passing through the 2024 general election, the 2025 presidential election, and the 2026 local elections, there will be no major national elections for the next year and a half once this national convention is over. Since there are no nationwide elections, this is a very important period to build the foundation for consecutive terms in power. In the process of running three consecutive elections, the party members have also... of course, because we created the Lee Jae-myung administration, we achieved results, and because the President has run state affairs so well, we receive applause and expectations are high, but there are still difficult aspects of the public's livelihood, and the aftermath of the Middle East war is also significant. I hope this national convention will showcase a competent Democratic Party that can overcome these challenges and is well-prepared. However, at a time when we have overcome controversies from the 2002 candidate unification process, blocked attempts to induce martial law and point bayonets at the public through the power of the people, and even led to impeachment to hold an early presidential election, I think the public might find it a bit embarrassing that the party is so obsessed with those past issues during an internal primary.

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: It seems that the core issue of this national convention is the relationship between the party and the presidential office (Cheong Wa Dae). In other words, for the success of the Lee Jae-myung administration, the relationship between the Democratic Party and Cheong Wa Dae must be an organically cooperative one, and they must not conflict with each other. However, there seems to be a clash between those who say things went well over the past year (or that they worked hard to make it go well) and those who say it did not work out over the past year, blaming former leader Jung Chung-rae for failing to do so. What are your thoughts, Representative Kim?

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: In any case, the core of the issue is that we had a certain level of expectation heading into the June 3 local elections, and there was a self-reflective evaluation by the President that we "received a warning from the public" because we fell short of those expectations. Since this national convention is being held after that, while the evaluation of the past year is of course important, the culmination of that evaluation was the local elections and the by-elections. Because we failed to win in districts where we could have won, the public was disappointed, and the result of that disappointment was reflected in the decline of the President's approval rating and the party's approval rating. That seems to be an undeniable fact. Also, although there were certain achievements in prosecution reform, judicial reform, and media reform over the past year, the passage of bills related to public livelihood fell short of expectations. Although that was ultimately a problem stemming from the opposition party's committee chairs failing to do their jobs properly, those in Cheong Wa Dae are bound to say, "What if we had persuaded them a bit more and played that role better?"

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: From the public's perspective, it might look a bit poor for the ruling party to cite such a reason as the cause for failing to achieve something.

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: That is why, while the evaluation of the past year is important, the evaluation of the local elections seems to be the barometer for this national convention.

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: I see. Even if I keep asking who the candidate for the national convention will be, the answer is already set because the party members will decide.

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: The answer will be decided by the party members and public sentiment.

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: Understood. President Lee Jae-myung announced the "Three Mega Projects" along with SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, and in the case of Gwangju, the site has already been announced as the military airport site. Your standing committee is currently Science and Technology, right?

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: The Science, ICT, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee (Science and Tech Committee).

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: The Science, ICT, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee. The name is indeed very long. Aren't you one of the longest-serving active lawmakers on that committee?

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: No, seven of us remained and four were replaced. So, our first-term lawmakers and former Minister of Unification Chung Dong-young remain, and we are entering our third year together.

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: Since former Unification Minister Chung Dong-young has to focus on Unification Ministry matters...

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: No, but his constituency is Jeonju, and while there are AI-related issues in Jeollabuk-do, Representative Chung Dong-young actually served on the science and technology committee before. He also made great efforts to expand the AI field through weekly breakfast forums with the ruling and opposition party executive secretaries, including Representative Choi Hyoung-du. As a result, we had about 326 AI-related forums inside the National Assembly throughout the first half of the term, 50% of which were held in our committee. In particular, during the 2024 budget processing period, even though we were the opposition party at the time, we worked together to pass the AI Framework Act and made efforts to secure a significant portion of the budget, which I proudly believe laid the foundation for the Three Mega Projects this time.

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: Will there be further follow-up measures at the National Assembly level?

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: Yes. Not only at the National Assembly level, but first at the party level, the executive secretaries of each standing committee are participating in a committee to support the Three Mega Projects. Then, at our committee level, we are supporting improvements to laws and systems. The National Assembly needs to open; we selected the executive secretary yesterday, and although the opposition party has not entered yet, we are constantly putting our heads together and discussing outside the chamber.

▷ [Anchor] Joo Young-jin: Understood. I hope to see the National Assembly, the Democratic Party, and even the opposition party put their heads together and deliberate for the success of the Three Mega Projects. This was our interview with Representative Kim Hyun today. Thank you very much for your time.

▶ [Interview] Rep. Kim Hyun: Thank you.