Kim Seung-won says he is 'sorry' but vows to defend himself
Real estate controversies shadow hearings for two other nominees
Ruling party mounts defense as opposition sharpens attacks
The confirmation hearing for Kim Seung-won, nominee for minister of justice, turned into a clash between the ruling and opposition parties from the outset Tuesday at the National Assembly. Kim bowed his head and said he was "sorry" over the various allegations surrounding him, but made clear he intended to serve as minister by pledging to actively refute any claims he said were untrue.
In his opening remarks, Kim said he had "looked back on the path I have walked and the areas where I fell short" while preparing for the hearing. "I am sorry for causing concern to the public over the allegations related to me," he said.
He added that as a judge he had tried to understand the circumstances of citizens who appeared before the court, and as a lawyer had worked to help those left without the protection of the law. "As a National Assembly member, I also devoted myself to resolving the difficulties of the people through institutional reform," he said.
Tensions between the two parties ran high from the start, however. The central issue was an allegation that Kim had lobbied for approval of a clinical trial for a new drug related to COVID-19. The opposition pressed hard, arguing that the nominee's ethics and fitness for office had to be scrutinized, while the ruling party pushed back, saying unverified allegations should not be inflated.
Seo Young-gyo, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker who chairs the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, urged members to "thoroughly verify the nominee's competence and ethics based on your own convictions and expertise, as representatives of the people, setting aside partisan and political interests."
Park Hyung-su, a People Power Party lawmaker who leads his party's side on the committee, immediately took issue with the hearing's witness list and the nominee's document submissions. "The Democratic Party is planning a hollow hearing with not a single witness," Park said, raising his voice. "The nominee is also handling document submissions with a complete lack of sincerity."
Lawmakers also clashed head-on over allegations surrounding a social cooperative run by Kim's spouse, alongside controversies over the nominee's past conduct and family — including allegations of fraudulent address registration for a minor child, a prior conviction for drunk driving, and suspected preferential hiring of a sitting judge's child.
The dispute over the spouse's social cooperative grew particularly heated. Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Nam-hee criticized People Power Party lawmaker Ju Jin-woo, saying he had used "hateful expressions" at a press conference — calling the cooperative a "straw sucking taxpayer money" and saying it had "fattened itself on public funds" — misleading the public into treating it as an illegal organization. "Parents have been hurt and caused pain by this," she said.
Ju shot back, asking whether she had listened to the full recording, and the hearing descended into disorder for a time as lawmakers from both sides traded protests.
Ju said the cooperative had been registered after the Suwon city government gave it special treatment — extending its application period even though it had bypassed the open bidding process and failed a fire safety inspection — through direct communication with the head of the city's social welfare team. "There are tens of thousands of people with developmental disabilities across the country," he said. "What kind of structure is it where benefits are concentrated on just 20 students at the school where Kim Seung-won's spouse serves as director?"
When ruling party lawmakers pushed back — with some shouting "devil" — Ju retorted, "You should defend what deserves to be defended." The confrontation over vetting the nominee had spilled into allegations about his spouse, driving the partisan standoff to a fever pitch early in the hearing.
Confirmation hearings held simultaneously for two other ministerial nominees were also marked by disputes over real estate and other issues. Lee Hyung-il, nominee for deputy prime minister and minister of economy and finance, and Lee So-young, nominee for minister of SMEs and startups, also faced scrutiny.
Lee Hyung-il came under fire over an apartment he purchased in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, which he held for 17 years while actually living there for only four months — a record the opposition said contradicted the Lee Jae Myung administration's stated emphasis on owner-occupancy in housing policy. The opposition argued that holding a home for so long while spending so little time living in it ran counter to the government's own real estate policy stance.
Lee So-young faces allegations over capital gains from a Seoul apartment in Hongje-dong where she did not actually reside, as well as suspicions over a 70 million won ($52,000) service contract with a vacancy management firm. The opposition said it plans to closely examine the real estate issues surrounding Lee and the process by which the service contract was awarded.
Lee Hyung-il pledged to "answer sincerely and honestly," adding that he would "devote all his energy to building the foundation of an irreplaceable Republic of Korea, drawing on more than 30 years of accumulated expertise and experience overcoming crises."
Lee So-young said she would "open a new era of national entrepreneurship where everyone can take on challenges and grow, through bold regulatory rationalization and the restoration of trust in capital markets," adding that "we must not become a society that blocks new things in order to protect the existing order."
Party leadership also kept a close watch on the hearings Tuesday, trading barbs outside the chamber. Democratic Party floor leader Han Byung-do said at a floor strategy meeting that "confirmation hearings are the place to thoroughly verify, before the public, the policy competence and execution ability of the leaders who will head each ministry," saying nominees should be judged primarily on their capabilities.
The People Power Party singled out Kim as its primary target for rejection and renewed its calls for his nomination to be withdrawn, citing the clinical trial approval lobbying allegation and other issues as evidence that he lacked the fitness to serve.
People Power Party floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik said the nomination should be withdrawn "even now," warning that "if the appointment goes ahead regardless, the lame-duck presidency at 30 percent approval will become a 'dead duck' at 20 percent."
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