President of District Heating Corporation, responding to criticism of ‘Kim Hyun-ji officiating’, “There is no special relationship”

Ha Dong-geun, president of the Korea District Heating Corporation, said on the 19th that a 'special relationship' was not formed by officiating with Kim Hyun-ji, the first deputy director of the Blue House.

In response to a related question from People Power Party Rep. Na Kyung-won during the audit of the National Assembly's Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee on this day, President Ha said, "The officiating ceremony is not that special. I officiated about 40 times during my career, and this was one of them."

He then explained, “There is no special relationship or anything like that that can be brought about by the officiant.”

Rep. Na mentioned that President Ha officiated for Director Kim that day and asked whether he communicated with Director Kim during the application process for the president of the Korea District Heating Corporation.

Rep. Na said that President Ha rose to the position of president despite receiving low evaluations, such as ranking 8th out of 8 people who were subject to document screening and 5th out of 5 people in the interview screening, and asked, "Did Director Kim Hyun-ji tell you to go?"

President Ha responded, “I thought the initial testing criteria and final selection criteria might be slightly different.”

When asked if he had communicated with Director Kim in advance, he drew the line, saying, “I did not.”