Kim Min-seok: 'The More I Look, the Better the Appointment' ... Vows to Protect Kim Seung-won
Kim Min-seok, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, has declared unequivocally that he will stand by Kim Seung-won, the nominee for justice minister who faces allegations of lobbying (the use of money or gifts to exert improper influence). At the party's Supreme Council (the body that decides the party's key agenda items) held at the North Chungcheong Provincial Government complex in Cheongju on the 11th, Kim said of the nominee, "The more I observe him, the more I judge him to be an excellent appointment," adding, "We will protect him."
Kim was sharply critical of independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon, saying, "Public conviction that he must be punished is mounting." Han has aggressively pressed allegations in recent days linking the justice minister nominee to lobbying over a COVID-19 drug. He has also released a series of internal prosecution documents, including recorded phone conversations and an indictment plan (a document prosecutors prepare in drawing up an indictment).
The Democratic leader's criticism went beyond Han Dong-hoon as an individual. Kim framed the situation this way: "The essence of the current affair is that remnant forces within the prosecution who resist reform are carrying out what amounts to a continuing insurrection — and it is being exposed through Han Dong-hoon's attention-seeking politics." He thus redefined the confrontational dynamic by tying the anti-reform prosecution faction to the lawmaker's conduct.
As for the various internal prosecution documents — including the recorded phone calls and the indictment plan — that Han had previously disclosed, Kim branded them "illegal materials." He warned, "Whether one leaked the illegal materials or knowingly made use of them, all of it amounts to an illegal-materials connection," predicting, "This will be the occasion to root them all out and bring them to justice." He went on: "Even without my resorting to the word 'out,' I believe the public's judgment is already moving toward 'out.'"
The rebuttal also extended to allegations about the nominee's private life. Kim criticized, "Lawmaker Han has been firing off his gun wildly, and having run out of ammunition, has now stooped to hints of some affair involving the nominee." He added, "Presenting a photo taken at someone's housewarming and calling it 'evidence of an affair' — I suspect he intends to put forward photographs that may rival, or perhaps surpass, the doctored golf photos of the Daejang-dong scandal," preemptively challenging the credibility of the photographic evidence.
The immediate trigger for this rebuttal was a remark by lawmaker Han two days before the Supreme Council meeting, on the 9th. That day, Han posed pointed questions to the nominee: "Did you ever visit the broker's home? Did you go to that home and take a photo of just the two of you?"
