(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Jeong-hyeon = On the 6th, independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon revealed the contents of a phone call between Minister of Justice candidate Kim Seung-won and Mr. Yang, a broker involved in a case involving a request for approval of a clinical trial of a new drug, and said, “There were blatantly illegal calls” even before exchanging ‘solicitation text messages.’
Representative Han released a related transcript on Facebook that day, saying, "It seems as if Yang and Candidate Kim are saying that two text messages to the media were all they received, but that is a lie."
According to the transcript, in the first call on October 12, 2021, Candidate Kim said to Mr. Yang, "I will talk to you so that you can take care of it yourself. Where is the department? Where is the department? Ah, well, the Minister of Food and Drug Safety will know. Then, shouldn't we issue phase 3 approval quickly and see the results anyway? That way, I will directly ask the Minister to take care of it and report it."
Candidate Kim said in the second phone call, "I told you, and you said you would check and report to me, so please wait. The director is helping to speed up the process by deploying all available personnel. He is talking in principle like this."
In response, Mr. Yang said, "That's right. So I was going to give the data today, but another person in charge told me not to give it today. This is an avoidance of responsibility among the people in charge, but since it is a bit of an issue, the people in charge are contacting me, but they say they are not going over the line of the manager."
Candidate Kim then responded, "I'm blocked at the manager level? Okay."
Representative Han explained, “On October 12, 2021, there were such blatantly illegal calls between Candidate Kim, Mr. Yang, and Minister of Food and Drug Safety Kim Kang-lip before the exchange of solicitation text messages.”
At the same time, he pointed out, "Director Kim, who received lobbying from Candidate Kim, relayed the request 'to the blocked manager, Mr. Kim,' through a text message from his secretary, Mr. Ko, which I disclosed a while ago. It was 'romantic' and 'successful.'"
The text message revealed by a lawmaker was sent by Mr. Ko, Director Kim's secretary, to Mr. Kim, who was the head of the clinical policy department. Mr. Ko sent a text saying, "Chief. Rep. Seung-won Kim sent a separate text. The director asked me to look into it and make sure that things like this don't come out from that side from now on."
One lawmaker pointed out, “It was a successful lobby that reached the working level.”
Representative Han also pointed out that in February 2021, when COVID-19 was at its peak, the leadership of the Democratic Party of Korea visited Jeju to encourage a company developing a treatment, and that the CEO of the company was the person at the center of this suspicion. He also pointed out, "The 'poison drug lobbying' is not just Kim Seung-won's problem. That's why the Democratic Party is going all out, saying it's a 'good thing' and a 'public interest complaint.'"
Previously, Candidate Kim, a former judge, was investigated for requesting approval for a clinical trial of a COVID-19 treatment from then-Minister of Food and Drug Safety Kim Kang-lip at the request of Mr. Yang in October 2021. However, the prosecution suspended the indictment of Candidate Kim in December 2024, saying that there was no direct bribery and that it was difficult to determine the illegality of the solicitation.
Meanwhile, in response to the Democratic Party's raising questions about how the recording was obtained, one lawmaker refuted on Facebook, saying, "There are still many righteous people in the world who report for the public interest."
Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Dong-ah is poised to make the issue of leaked investigation records an issue by announcing on this day that he will report to the High-ranking Public Officials Crime Investigation Office an unidentified provider who gave investigation records to a lawmaker.
In response, Rep. Han responded, "Such intimidation cannot stop National Assembly member Han Dong-hoon, who is doing his duty for the public interest, from speaking. The more the Democratic Party gets angry as a group, the more it will become a self-defeating effort to let all the people know that 'the Democratic Party also acknowledges the fact of the poison lobbying of my brother,' 'the Democratic Party defends the poison lobbying of my brother,' and 'the Democratic Party all live like Seung-won Kim.'"
