(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Soo-yoon and Noh Seon-woong = On the 4th, the People Power Party focused its firepower on an offensive against Minister of Justice Kim Seung-won, who was suspected of soliciting approval for clinical trials for the development of new COVID-19 drugs, and Yong Hye-in, candidate for Minister of Gender Equality and Family, who was engulfed in criticism due to controversy over the concurrent office of proportional representative lawmaker.
The People Power Party criticized the two candidates as 'the last of Juan Muchi' and pressured President Lee Jae-myung, who holds personnel authority, to withdraw the nomination and apologize before additional suspicions arise.
◇ Additional suspicions regarding Kim Seung-won's 'involvement in unfair stock trading and collusion with judges'... “The place to go is the detention center.”
The People Power Party strongly criticized Candidate Kim's explanation of the suspicion of requesting clinical trial approval as "a simple conveyance of public interest complaints" and argued that the issue should be investigated by a special prosecutor, saying that it is also linked to "stockholders' involvement in unfair transactions" and "suspicion of collusion between judges."
Kim Mi-ae, senior vice-president of the National Assembly Policy Committee, said at the meeting, "According to the released transcript, candidate Kim seems to have been aware that clinical approval (biotechnology company Genencell's COVID-19 treatment candidate) would lead to enormous economic benefits," and added, "Nevertheless, five days later, he specified the company name and department in charge and requested prompt processing from the Minister of Food and Drug Safety."
Senior Vice President Kim pointed out, “A week later, Sejong Medical invested 11.3 billion won in Genencell, and another week later, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved the clinical trial plan.”
He continued, "After the news was announced, Sejong Medical's stock price soared in the early hours of the day and then fell to the lower limit, and 37% of all issued stocks were sold for two days. Afterwards, the clinical trial was halted, and the book value of the Genencell investment stake became 0 won," he said. "President Lee, who said that manipulating stock prices would ruin the company, should first expose the Kim Seung-won scandal."
Rep. Park Jeong-hoon also disclosed a public interest reporter's opinion submitted to the Seoul Western District Court by Mr. A, who worked as a consultant at the company of Ms. Yang, a female businesswoman who called candidate Kim "oppa" on social media, and Mr. Kang, the owner of Genencell, who was promoting the development of a COVID-19 treatment with Mr. Yang.
In his opinion, Mr. A argued, “In the process of executing the lobbying, (Mr. Kang) deposited 5 million won to Rep. Kim Seung-won’s side, but there are circumstances in which it failed due to exceeding the limit,” and added, “This is a clear expression of intention to actually pay the price and the start of the implementation, so the value of the compensation must be acknowledged.”
Mr. A also appealed regarding damage to investors, saying, "The losses of individual investors who believed the disclosures to be true and participated in the investment should never be overlooked," and added, "About 700 minority shareholders are hoping for the defendants to be severely punished."
Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon, who is focusing on the allegations of illegal lobbying by candidate Kim, met with reporters in Busan and said, "Candidate Kim is someone who should go to the Uiwang Seoul Detention Center, not the Gwacheon Ministry of Justice building," and added, "This matter requires a special prosecution."
Representative Jang Dong-hyuk also claimed that Candidate Kim intervened in the nomination process for the Democratic Party's basic members during the local elections.
Representative Jang wrote on Facebook, "Suspicion was raised about Candidate Kim's 'father and daughter nomination' in the last local election," and "A 24-year-old woman who had never worked in Gyeonggi Province was elected by receiving proportional representation number 1. Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly member Seo In-ha, daughter of Blue House speech secretary Seo Yong-min."
He continued, "There was opposition during the nomination process, but it is said that candidate Kim, who was the chairman of the Democratic Party's Gyeonggi Province Party at the time, pushed for it," and sarcastically asked, "Is the ministerial position the result of frugally taking care of the daughter of the secretary of the Blue House?"
It was also pointed out that Candidate Kim and his wife were 'late in paying' the four years' worth of taxes they had not paid after being nominated as a ministerial candidate.
On this day, Rep. Kim Tae-gyu revealed data on Candidate Kim and his wife's recent tax payment details on Facebook and said, "When the hearing was scheduled, we started paying four years' worth of taxes. We did not pay comprehensive income tax on time from 2022 to 2025, but this time, we hastily paid it by reporting after the deadline."
According to publicly available comprehensive income tax payment data, on the 1st, candidate Kim paid 553,000 won in taxes and his spouse paid 413,730 won in taxes.
Looking at Candidate Kim's taxation certificate for each local tax item, all local income taxes attributed from 2022 to 2025 were processed as 'reported after the deadline' this month.
Rep. Kim criticized, "If you had not become a candidate for minister, did you plan to pass on it?" and added, "A person who wants to sit in a position to enforce the law is actually making fun of his own tax obligations."
◇ Yong Hye-in is “an object of ridicule for being a privileged person”… Basic income, job subsidy receipt
According to the annual accounting report submitted to the National Election Commission by the Basic Income Party and the Party's think tank, the Basic Income Policy Research Institute, the Basic Income Party received more than 72 million won in job subsidies from 2020 to last year.
There were various reasons, such as the Job Stabilization Fund, in which the government partially supports labor costs to ease the management burden of small business owners, and the Youth Job Jump-start Incentive, in which the government supports a portion of labor costs when a company hires young people as regular employees and maintains employment for more than half a year.
In addition, the Basic Income Policy Research Institute earned approximately KRW 412 million in income from government subsidies for policy research purposes over the past 7 years from 2020 until recently, but the budget for policy research was found to be only KRW 15.465 million (3.75%).
On the other hand, 276.96 million won (67.2%) was spent on labor costs, and in particular, 350,000 won per month was provided from August 2022 to July 2023 in the name of office rent and management expenses to the 'Alba Solidarity', a civic group in which Candidate Yong's husband, Park Ki-hong, Vice President of Strategic Planning of the Basic Income Party, was a member.
The Basic Income Party stated in its accounting report that it paid 54 million won for the production of campaign materials to a company in Jongno-gu, Seoul during the June 3 local elections, but it was also discovered that it was actually produced not by the company, but by another company in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, headed by Mr. Won, a former leader of the Socialist Party. The now-defunct Socialist Party was later passed on to the New Progressive Party and then to the Labor Party, which had candidate Yong.
Amid these suspicions, the People Power Party poured crossfire on Candidate Yong and repeatedly called for the withdrawal of the nomination.
Secretary General Jeong Hee-yong said, "Candidate Yong is becoming the target of ridicule as a 'family income party' and a 'privileged person' amidst endless controversy," and added, "Do not test the people's patience any longer."
Lim Ja, chairman of the policy committee, also said, "The public's evaluation of Kim Seung-won, who was involved in graft corruption, and Yong Hye-in, a family party with a monopoly on preferential treatment, is already over. They are the end of Juan Muchi," and added, "Withdraw their nominations by the end of the week."
Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon said, "Both Yong Hye-in and Kim Seung-won are icons of anti-fairness," and added, "If we stick to this, it will lead to the 'Cho Kuk Incident' and the government's words will not be good."
