Han Dong-hoon signals more revelations on 'oppa drug-lobbying' allegations

PPP: hiring of 'best friend' judge's son mirrors Cho Kuk scandal

With Gender Equality and Family Minister nominee Yong Hye-in having effectively withdrawn her candidacy Sunday, opposition scrutiny is now focused on Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won. Kim is seen arriving at his confirmation hearing preparation office in the Jeokseon Hyundai Building in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on Friday. [Yonhap]
With Gender Equality and Family Minister nominee Yong Hye-in having effectively withdrawn her candidacy Sunday, opposition scrutiny is now focused on Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won. Kim is seen arriving at his confirmation hearing preparation office in the Jeokseon Hyundai Building in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on Friday. [Yonhap]

With Gender Equality and Family Minister nominee Yong Hye-in having effectively stepped down Sunday, opposition attention is now converging on Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won.

The People Power Party warned that Kim's case evokes a sense of déjà vu, drawing parallels to the scandal surrounding former Justice Minister Cho Kuk — whose children's preferential treatment allegations, the PPP argued, foreshadowed the collapse of the Moon Jae-in administration.

Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon, who has cast himself as Kim's chief critic, announced a press conference Sunday, signaling further revelations.

PPP Chief Spokesperson Choi Bo-yun, in a statement Sunday, said Kim had hired as a legislative aide the son of a judge — the very judge Kim himself called his "best friend" — who had rejected an arrest warrant for the CEO of Genencell. "The real issue is not how much he was paid or how many hours he worked," Choi said. "To young people today for whom even a standard hiring process is a luxury, Kim represents yet another cycle of privilege summed up in two words: 'best friend.'"

Choi called the situation "a mirror image of the Cho Kuk affair — another chapter of unfairness." She said that while the Cho Kuk scandal was a betrayal of the fairness and justice the administration itself had championed, Kim's case went even further.

"History has already given us the answer," Choi said. "Only the Lee Jae Myung administration and the Democratic Party are once again looking away. If they insist on going down this road, there is nothing we can do — but as with the Moon Jae-in government, the public will ultimately abandon the Lee Jae Myung administration."

Choi also cited a Gallup Korea poll released Friday, noting that only 22 percent of respondents rated Kim as suitable for the post — 16 percentage points below President Lee's approval rating of 38 percent, itself a post-inauguration low. Among independents, the gap was even wider: 19 percent found him suitable against 45 percent who did not, a spread of more than two to one.

Choi also criticized the Democratic Party of Korea for repeatedly blocking witness approvals at National Assembly confirmation hearings. "Of the 25 confirmation hearings held since the Lee Jae Myung government took office, 18 ended without a single witness," she said. "It is none other than the Democratic Party that has made witness-free hearings the new normal."

She added that the party "called for parliamentary democracy when it was in opposition, but now that it holds power, it has become the administration's vanguard — carrying out parliamentary autocracy."

Meanwhile, Han — who has been at the forefront of scrutiny over Kim, releasing recordings related to allegations that Kim lobbied on behalf of a new drug — announced he would hold an additional press conference.

Han wrote on Facebook that he would hold a press conference at the National Assembly on Sunday afternoon regarding what he called the "Kim Seung-won oppa drug-lobbying" allegations.

In a separate Facebook post, Han asked Democratic Party women lawmakers whether they were comfortable with the "oppa lobbying," saying the party had deployed its spokespeople to question only where the evidence came from while failing to rebut "the shocking and embarrassing substance" of the allegations. "The more they do that, the more the Democratic Party is effectively confessing to the whole oppa drug-lobbying affair," he said.

Han also posed a pointed question to the women lawmakers defending Kim. "I would ask them: if their own husband or family member had secretly met with a room salon hostess broker who called him 'oppa,' said he missed her so much it brought him to tears, even visited her home — and on top of that, engaged in illegal lobbying to win her favor — would that be acceptable?" he said. "Would they praise that as a 'good thing,' the way Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok did?"

Gender Equality and Family Minister nominee Yong Hye-in pauses in thought during a press conference at the National Assembly's media center Sunday, where she announced her withdrawal from the nomination. [Yonhap]
Gender Equality and Family Minister nominee Yong Hye-in pauses in thought during a press conference at the National Assembly's media center Sunday, where she announced her withdrawal from the nomination. [Yonhap]

Yong withdrew Sunday, 14 days after President Lee Jae Myung nominated her as gender equality and family minister.

Yong said she had received a message from the Democratic Party asking her to "make a decision, taking into account the lack of broad public consensus on holding both a proportional representation Assembly seat and a ministerial post simultaneously." She said she was stepping down "along with the resolve I had as the Lee Jae Myung government's gender equality and family minister nominee to build an equal society for all."


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