Lawmaker cites 'false information'; ex-aide fires back, vows to keep speaking out
As a police investigation into 13 separate allegations against independent lawmaker Kim Byung-kee drags past the one-year mark, Kim has announced plans to file a defamation complaint against a former aide who has been raising those allegations.
Kim's office said it intends to file a criminal complaint against the former aide, identified only by his surname Kim, on charges including defamation through the publication of false information.
In a statement issued Friday, Kim's office said the former aide and other ex-staff members had "repeatedly spread false information" but that it had refrained from responding while the case remained under investigation. "We express deep regret over the one-sided spread of false information by former staff and will henceforth hold them firmly accountable under the law," the statement said.
The former aide is also a direct victim in one of the allegations under investigation — that Kim improperly pressured Coupang Inc over personnel decisions.
Kim is under investigation on suspicion that, ahead of a national audit last year, he dined with Park Dae-joon, then chief executive of Coupang's South Korea operations, and requested that the company take adverse personnel action against the former aide and other ex-staff who had joined the firm.
Police, who are conducting supplementary investigations into various allegations against Kim at prosecutors' request, summoned the former aide Friday as a reference witness to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Metropolitan Investigation Unit's public crimes division.
Speaking to reporters before the questioning, the former aide said Kim had "told many people around him that police would not be able to refer the case to prosecutors before Oct. 2, so he would not face a prosecution investigation."
He also said Kim had displayed "bizarre behavior" during a police interview, abruptly rising from his seat and walking out to go home.
In response to the threatened complaint, the former aide issued his own statement Saturday, saying he would "wait for Rep. Kim Byung-kee to file the complaint."
"The claim that I and other former staff 'spread false information' is itself a blatant falsehood," he said. "The harder they try to silence me, the more I will speak."
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's investigation review committee had ordered the investigative team on Aug. 25 to wrap up the long-running case "within one month." Police, however, failed to conclude the investigation within that period and extended it further.
The delay followed prosecutors' rejection of an arrest warrant police had sought against Kim on Sept. 7, with prosecutors sending the case back for additional investigation.
The main allegations against Kim include: receiving 30 million won ($22,100) from Dongjak-gu council members ahead of the 2020 general election and later returning it; intervening to quash a police investigation into his spouse's alleged misuse of a Dongjak-gu council corporate card; and delegating work belonging to his eldest son, a National Intelligence Service employee, to his legislative office staff. Kim is also suspected of having been aware of evidence that lawmaker Kang Sun-woo received illicit payments in exchange for party nominations during the 2022 local elections — when Kim led his party's side on the nominations committee — and of having turned a blind eye. He faces further allegations of lobbying the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb to hire his second son.
Kim has appeared before police seven times for questioning since his first interview as a suspect in February, denying all charges against him at every session.
kido@heraldcorp.com
