Kim Seung-won's 'Chance Meeting' Was Preceded by a Tearful 'I Miss You' Phone Call
Independent Rep. Han Dong-hoon on the 5th took aim at Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won's explanation of his “chance meeting,” releasing yet another transcript of a phone call in which Kim said he was “in tears from missing” Yang before the two met. On Facebook, Han rebutted the nominee's account of a February 2022 photo showing him alongside broker Yang and the judge in charge of warrants, calling it “a brazen lie.” He asked, “Did you really 'happen to' run into Yang around February 2022?” According to the transcript, on Feb. 9, 2022, when Kim was a first-term lawmaker, he told Yang on the phone, “Sis, I miss you so much that tears are just coming to my eyes.” When Yang said, “Oppa, I'll rush over right now—where are you?” Kim answered, “I'm in Yeouido.” When Yang offered to set out from Hanam and arrive within an hour, Kim hesitated—“Well, we have the court personnel reshuffle season and all”—before soon saying, “I'll wait.” In a second call that same day, when Kim said, “It would be a shame if we could only see each other for 20 or 30 minutes,” Yang replied, “No shame at all. I'm coming loaded with plenty of stuff, so just stay put,” and Kim responded, “Yes, yes, I'll be here.”
Han also released an additional transcript of a call Yang had with another person in October 2021. As to the suspicions that Kim was asked to help win approval of a new drug's clinical trials, Yang said, “Getting the regulatory approvals through—that's Seung-won oppa,” adding, “Seung-won oppa talked to the food and drug safety commissioner, and today he said again, 'Shall I push it with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, too? Your donation is only 5 million won, so things had better go well for you.'” Han argued that with the donation amounting to a mere 5 million won, the remark implied that Yang should collect the payoff for the lobbying of the food and drug safety chief.
Also made public was a conversation between Yang and Kang, the owner of Genexcel, on Oct. 27, 2021. When Kang said, “Because of this incident, all your effort is going to hand you a perfect justification for Genexcel,” Yang replied, “Actually, I was planning to make money off this and slip Seung-won oppa a cool 20 million won in cash,” adding, “and to take credit for it, saying it's a time when the Lee Jae-myung campaign needs funds.”
Against this backdrop, Rep. Na Kyung-won widened the web of alleged connections on Facebook by citing KH Filux, whose share price soared after it invested in Genexcel. Na pointed out that Chairman Bae Sang-yoon is “a figure described as forming an 'economic community' with former Chairman Kim Sung-tae, the central figure in Ssangbangwool's remittances to North Korea, and a fugitive abroad who is even subject to an Interpol Red Notice on embezzlement and breach-of-trust charges involving hundreds of billions of won,” adding that he “even faces suspicions of being financially entangled with Kim Man-bae of the Daejang-dong scandal.” She also noted that the nominee Kim and Kim Man-bae are alumni of Suseong High School in Suwon. She went on to argue, “If Kim took up the request after already knowing in advance of the vast web of ties linking 'KH Group–Genexcel' through Kim Sung-tae, Bae Sang-yoon and Kim Man-bae, then … if you follow the trail link by link, President Lee stands at the end of the masterminds. The 'Genexcel gate' of Lee Jae-myung and Kim Seung-won is a matter that must go all the way to a parliamentary investigation and a special counsel.”
The nominee, a former judge, was investigated on suspicion that in October 2021, at Yang's behest, he asked then Food and Drug Safety Commissioner Kim Gang-lip to approve clinical trials of a COVID-19 treatment. Prosecutors, however, suspended indictment in December 2024, citing the absence of any direct exchange of money or valuables and the difficulty of establishing the illegality of the request.
The confirmation hearing for Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won is to be held on the 15th. The release of transcripts has continued one after another ahead of the hearing.
