Welfare Committee's 'Genencell' conflict...野 “Refusal and concealment of witnesses” · 與 “No need for political conflict”

National power, let's put up hand signs and sit down and protest loudly... Resumption after adjournment

Hey, condemn the adoption of witnesses and the lack of data from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety...與 “Kim Seung-won has already resigned as a candidate”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kwon Hee-won = The ruling and opposition parties clashed from the beginning on the 13th in the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee's audit of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety over the request for submission of materials and the selection of witnesses related to Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Seung-won's 'suspicion of requesting clinical trials for a new drug called Genencell'.

People Power Party lawmakers sat down with signs attached to their laptops that read, ‘Concealment of witness refusal data, trampling on the public’s right to know, who do you protect?’ and ‘The truth that needs to be revealed to the public, why can’t we call key witnesses?’

As ruling party members continued to protest loudly, demanding the signs be removed, the meeting was adjourned once and resumed after the signs were removed.

Rep. Seo Young-seok of the Democratic Party, the ruling party's secretary, said, "It is not appropriate to turn the National Assembly Audit Office into a venue for unilateral political attacks," and requested, "Please take action to remove the pickets and allow the audit to proceed."

Rep. Lee Soo-jin of the same party raised her voice, saying, "I don't think it is polite to fellow lawmakers to put up picket signs and conduct an audit of government affairs," and added, "Why do you bother mentioning here the name of a fellow lawmaker who is not even here and who has already resigned as a candidate for Minister of Justice and make an issue of it?"

In response, Rep. Baek Jong-heon of the People Power Party, a member of the opposition party, countered, "Please start by looking back at the reason why you came out with picket signs at the National Assembly inspection," and added, "The witnesses requested by the People Power Party are people who can answer the questions the public wants to know about how the Genencell clinical trial was approved and why the National Pension Service delayed rebalancing, but they were not adopted due to opposition from the Democratic Party."

Rep. Jo Bae-sook of the same party also said, "Public suspicions regarding Rep. Kim's favor and the delisting of Sejong Medical continue," adding, "We want to reveal the truth about whether the current congressman abused his power by making all-encompassing requests to the Minister of Food and Drug Safety, and the truth about the power-type external pressure."

The People Power Party also took issue with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's refusal to submit data related to clinical trial approval.

Representative Lee Man-hee of the People Power Party, chairman of the Health and Welfare Committee, pointed out, "The first experimental report of the (Genencell new drug) by the Chonbuk National University Industry Collaboration Group was 17 pages long, but the final report submitted to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety was shortened to 6 pages, excluding 'hamster vomiting blood', etc." He added, "Even though such data is being used as evidence in the trial of the defendant (Genencell representative) Kang Se-chan, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety is not submitting the data."

In response, Democratic Party lawmaker Nam In-soon countered, saying, "I understand that Genencell manipulated the animal test results, and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety was not informed of the 17 pages of data." Rep. Seo Young-seok also countered, saying, "The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety had no intention of concealing the false submission because it was the company's fault."