(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Soo-yoon = On the 5th, independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon refuted it as a "brazen lie" when Kim Seung-won, candidate for Minister of Justice, explained on the 5th that he "met by chance" in relation to a February 2022 photo taken with Mr. Yang, a broker involved in a case involving a request for approval of a new drug clinical trial, and the judge in charge of the warrant.
In a Facebook post, Rep. Han said, "Is it true that you 'accidentally' ran into Mr. Yang around February 2022?" and then released a related transcript.
According to the transcript, Candidate Kim said in a phone call with Yang on February 9, 2022, when he was a first-term member of the National Assembly, "My younger brother, I miss you so much that tears come out of my eyes." In response, Yang asked, "Brother, I will run now. Where are you?"
When Candidate Kim said, "Yeouido," Yang responded, "I'm in Hanam, and I'll be arriving in an hour. Is that okay? Then, I'll be leaving right away, so please give me the address."
Candidate Kim then said, “Wait a minute… Oh, there is a personnel process for our court, so” to which Mr. Yang responded, “Oh, is it too long?” and Candidate Kim immediately said, “I’ll wait.”
In the second phone call that took place on the same day, Candidate Kim said, "It's a pity that I can only see you for 20 to 30 minutes," and Mr. Yang said, "It's not a pity. I'm packing a lot of things and going, so just stay for now." Candidate Kim then replies, “Yes, I will stay.”
Regarding the items mentioned by Mr. Yang, a lawmaker asked, “What were the ‘stuff’ that you received in abundance from Mr. Yang?”
In another Facebook post, Rep. Han also posted a transcript of Yang's phone call with another person in October 2021.
In this transcript, Mr. Yang said in relation to the suspicion of requesting approval for clinical trials of a new drug, "It is Seung-won's brother who is responsible for releasing the approval. He spoke to the Minister of Food and Drug Safety, and today he said again, 'Should we push it to the Ministry of Health and Welfare? Since the donation is only 5 million won, you should do well. Everyone is making a move because of you.'"
In response to this, one lawmaker claimed, "The intention was that Mr. Yang should receive enough compensation for lobbying the Minister of Food and Drug Safety since he could only receive 5 million won in donations."
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 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.
Later, around February 2022, controversy arose when a photo of candidate Kim, broker Yang, and judge in charge of warrants surnamed Jeong became known.
In response to this, Candidate Kim's personnel hearing preparation team said the previous day, "We only ran into Judge Jeong and Mr. Yang by chance at a public private gathering, and did not meet or contact them after that. Judge Jeong was not involved in the review of the warrant in the case. The two arrest warrant requests for Mr. Yang were reviewed and dismissed by different judges specializing in warrants who were not related to Judge Jeong."
Meanwhile, Rep. Jia Han of the People Power Party's Chin Han Dong-hoon faction claimed on this day that the speed of approval of the clinical trial plan of Genencell, a pharmaceutical company related to Candidate Kim's lobbying suspicions, was more than twice as fast as that of other COVID-19 treatments.
Looking at the '2020-2022 domestic clinical trial approval status for COVID-19 treatments' submitted by the former doctor to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, approval of clinical trial plans for new substance-based COVID-19 treatments took an average of 71.6 days, but Genencell was approved in just 33 days.
Rep. Ji-ah Han said on Facebook, "It was faster than the average approval date of 38.7 days for drug re-formulation treatments for which safety data has already been accumulated. Candidate Kim explains that it was a public interest complaint, but the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety must clearly reveal the circumstances and basis for review as to why Genencell's approval was granted unusually quickly. We will thoroughly verify it during the government audit."
