[Anchor]

The confirmation hearing for Minister of Justice nominee Kim Seung-won, who is engulfed in allegations regarding lobbying the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and a reward-based hire, will be held today (the 15th). There are many suspicions that need to be directly asked of the individuals involved, but due to the opposition of the Democratic Party, not a single witness will attend.

Today's first report comes from reporter Ha Jeongyeon.

[Reporter]

Yesterday, a day ahead of the National Assembly confirmation hearing, nominee for Minister of Justice Kim Seung-won repeatedly gave this response to reporters' questions on his way to work.

[Kim Seung-won / Nominee for Minister of Justice (Yesterday): (How will you explain the lobbying allegations and other issues during the hearing?) I will explain everything tomorrow. Perhaps if I say various things now...]

While nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family Yong Hye-in stepped down voluntarily the day before yesterday, the People Power Party pressured that Kim's nomination be withdrawn even now.

[Jang Dong-hyeok / Leader of the People Power Party: Are you planning to present a 'complete set of crimes' as a gift to the public ahead of Chuseok? The nomination of Kim Seung-won must be immediately withdrawn, even now.]

The Democratic Party dismissed this as groundless false propaganda and vowed to "defend nominee Kim."

[Han Byung-do / Floor Leader of the Democratic Party: Repeating 'what if' style allegations 100 times cannot turn false propaganda into verification.]

The core issue in verifying nominee Kim is the "allegation of lobbying the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety."

The question is whether nominee Kim's actions in 2021 asking then-Ministry of Food and Drug Safety Minister Kim Gang-lip for "fast-track processing" regarding the approval of Genencell's new drug clinical trial plan were appropriate.

There is a clash between suspicions that it was "illegal solicitation" and counterarguments that it was "delivering a public interest petition."

It was also additionally revealed that after Genencell's new drug received approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the drug or a placebo was administered to 93 COVID-19 patients during clinical trials in 2022.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety stated that no serious adverse drug reaction cases have been reported to date, but as Genencell is suspected of omitting or fabricating data during the approval process, controversies surrounding the safety of human clinical trials are expected to grow.

The fact that nominee Kim hired the son of Judge Jeong, who dismissed the arrest warrant for the founder of Genencell, as a legislative assistant is also a key issue.

Due to the Democratic Party's refusal to adopt witnesses, today's hearing will proceed without witnesses, and attention is focused on how much the suspicions raised against nominee Kim will be clarified.

(Video Reported by: Kim Yong-woo, Video Edited by: Lee Seunghee, Design: Hwang Se-yeon)