[Anchor]

Yesterday, we brought you an exclusive report regarding Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won hiring the son of the judge who dismissed the arrest warrant for the founder of Genencell. Today, nominee Kim directly addressed these "Dad's favor" allegations, stating that he is "confident and proud" of the hiring because it was done through an open interview process. However, when our reporting team directly interviewed the official who was in charge of the recruitment at the lawmaker's office at the time, a different account of the process was provided.

Our first report comes from exclusive coverage by reporter Shin Yong-il.

[Reporter]

Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won arriving at his confirmation hearing preparation office.

Regarding yesterday's exclusive SBS report that he hired the son of Judge Jeong, who had dismissed the December 2023 arrest warrant for Genencell founder Kang Se-chan, as a legislative assistant in his lawmaker office, Kim maintained that he has nothing to be ashamed of.

[Kim Seung-won / Justice Minister Nominee: Because I have nothing to be ashamed of, I gave him the role of legislative assistant openly through an interview.]

His stance is that there was no such thing as a "Dad's favor," citing that the recruitment process—which brought Judge Jeong's son into Kim's office starting in June 2024—was conducted openly.

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

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

The official explained that the entire recruitment process typically did not involve posting a separate public job opening and selecting from applicants, but rather receiving recommended resumes followed by a simple interview-like meeting between the recruitment aide and the applicant.

Regarding this, the official noted that it is difficult to consider what nominee Kim described as an "open interview."

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

At the same time, the official stated that no special favors were given to Jeong during his tenure as a legislative assistant and that he remembers him working diligently.

Through an additional statement released today, Kim's side stated that legislative assistant Jeong 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 financial benefits were provided.

(Camera: Yang Hyun-chul | Video Editing: Kim Ho-jin)