Spokesperson Jo: Han attempting 'witch hunt' against Kim Seung-won

Party says Han's 'cabinet politics' warrants removal from Assembly

Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon. [Yonhap]
Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon. [Yonhap]

The Democratic Party of Korea accused independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon of reviving his "cabinet politics" after he began publicly releasing recordings related to allegations that Ministry of Justice minister candidate Kim Seung-won had lobbied for a new drug approval.

Democratic Party Spokesperson Jo Gye-won said in a written briefing Sunday that Han had been releasing recordings of private phone calls between Kim and a broker on consecutive days. "Where did those recordings come from?" Jo said. "Prosecutors are said to have combed through four years' worth of phone data during their targeted investigation of lawmaker Kim Seung-won — is that where they came from?" Han released several related recordings through his Facebook page on Saturday and again Sunday morning.

Jo said the investigation had ultimately ended in an acquittal despite the extensive search. "Private phone recordings can only surface through the parties involved or through limited channels such as investigative agencies," the spokesperson said, adding that Han had "cherry-picked inflammatory statements in an attempt to conduct a witch hunt against candidate Kim Seung-won."

Jo went on to say that Han "is nothing more than an illegal cabinet-politics operator who deserves to be expelled from the National Assembly — someone whose true nature is better described as a politically motivated prosecutor running fabricated investigations." The spokesperson added that even as a former prosecutor and former minister of justice, Han had no privilege to pull investigative materials such as seized recordings from a cabinet and expose them at will. "If there is any illegality in how those materials were obtained and leaked, it could constitute a clear criminal offense," Jo said.

Jo also pointed to remarks Han made in August 2022, when, as justice minister, he told the National Assembly that he would not "rummage through Cheong Wa Dae cabinets the way things were done in the past." "Then who is it that has now pulled out the cabinet files on candidate Kim Seung-won?" Jo said. "Stockpiling cases in a cabinet and choosing the moment to deploy them — that is a long-standing practice of politically driven prosecutors."

Jo said the pattern — floating information to gauge public reaction, getting ahead of events, timing the release of cabinet-held investigative materials, and amplifying them through sympathetic media — amounted to Han's prosecutorial-style targeted investigations being replicated as political maneuvers. "It is highly likely that accomplices who handed over the recordings and investigative materials from the cabinet were involved," Jo said. "Whether it is Han himself or those accomplices, the conduct could constitute violations of laws on disclosure of official secrets, personal data protection and public records management — and Han would additionally face liability for defamation based on false facts."

Jo said it appeared Han would soon be "silenced" and called on him to fully disclose how he obtained the recordings and investigative materials, apologize to the public and seek forgiveness. "The answer to Han Dong-hoon's cabinet politics — the kind that schemes against people inside the National Assembly — is removal," Jo said.


mkkang@heraldcorp.com