Justice minister nominee Kim Seung-won denies improper lobbying amid 'cat selfie' scandal

Controversy is mounting around Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won after recordings and photographs revealing decades of close personal ties with Yang, a broker implicated in allegations of improper lobbying for clinical trial approval at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, were made public in quick succession. Opposition lawmakers have called for a full reinvestigation to expose what they are calling the "oppa gate" scandal and determine whether other politicians were involved. Kim pushed back, denying he had ever made an improper request to the ministry and demanding that independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon, who raised the allegations, disclose where he obtained the investigative materials.

Kim addressed the allegations surrounding his alleged lobbying for clinical trial approval of a COVID-19 treatment on Monday, saying he "takes seriously" the view that he "should have been more careful in the process of conveying the civil petition."

He nonetheless reiterated that he had never made an improper request to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and called on Han to appear before his confirmation hearing to substantiate his claims — and to explain where he obtained the investigative materials.

Kim made the remarks to reporters as he arrived Monday morning at his confirmation hearing preparation office in the Jeokseon Hyundai Building in Jongno-gu, Seoul.

"I never made an improper request to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and the ministry's review was not conducted unfairly as a result," he said. "That fact is clearly stated in the prosecutors' decision document."

Kim also pushed back on Han's suggestion that political pressure had influenced the prosecutors' decision to suspend his indictment, saying: "At the time of the suspended indictment, it was the Yoon Suk Yeol administration and Shim Woo-hyun was prosecutor general. How could a first-term Democratic Party lawmaker have pressured prosecutors into issuing a suspended indictment?"

On his relationship with broker Yang, Kim said he had first come to know her as a customer at restaurants and cafes frequented by legal professionals, and later took on her case involving a violation of the Labor Standards Act at an entertainment establishment. "In my view, I respected her as a successful female entrepreneur, and it is true that we have been close as a junior colleague," he said.

According to a phone recording released by independent lawmaker Han on Sunday, Kim took a three-way selfie with Yang and a sitting warrant judge around February 2022. In the recording, Kim can be heard telling Yang, "I miss you so much I have tears in my eyes" and "It's a shame we can only meet for 20 or 30 minutes," to which Yang replied, "I'll rush over right now. Where are you?"

In a separate recording from October 2021 — when the drug lobbying was under way — Yang told a third party that Kim had repeatedly told her: "You're only an antenna, and the donation is just 5 million won ($3,690), so talk about things that benefit you."

Han said the remark suggested Kim had encouraged Yang to personally pocket the lobbying proceeds because of donation limits.

It was also confirmed that in November 2019, Yang had set as her KakaoTalk profile picture a photo of herself and Kim posing together with a cat-ears-and-whiskers filter.

Yang wrote on social media that she first met Kim in 2004 when he was a judge, and Kim personally represented her in a Labor Standards Act violation case involving an entertainment venue in 2013.

Further evidence of ongoing contact has emerged — including social media comment exchanges in July 2022 and photographs of the two attending a disability awareness event together in Suwon in April 2023 — casting doubt on Kim's claim that there had been no further contact or meetings.

Yang is the person who, in 2021, received a request from Kang, the founder of pharmaceutical manufacturer Genencell, to secure expedited clinical trial approval for a COVID-19 treatment.

Kim is under investigation on allegations that he contacted then-Ministry of Food and Drug Safety Commissioner Kim Kang-lip directly in October of that year and asked him to "take a close look at Genencell's clinical trial application."

Prosecutors, however, suspended his indictment in December 2024, citing the absence of direct financial gain and the difficulty of establishing the illegality of the request.

Kim's camp has contested the decision, saying "there was absolutely no improper request or quid pro quo financial gain" and that "the premise of the suspended indictment was wrong." Kim filed a constitutional complaint in May last year, and the case is currently under review.

Meanwhile, People Power Party lawmaker Han Ji-a, an ally of Han Dong-hoon, claimed on Facebook on Monday that Genencell's clinical trial plan received approval more than twice as fast as other COVID-19 treatments, citing the lobbying allegations against Kim.

Han Ji-a, a physician by training, said data she obtained from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on domestic COVID-19 treatment clinical trial approvals from 2020 to 2022 showed that novel-compound-based COVID-19 treatments took an average of 71.6 days to receive clinical trial plan approval — while Genencell received approval in just 33 days.

Opposition lawmakers said the evidence "clearly shows Yang was lobbying while calling him 'oppa,'" and urged authorities to "expose the full truth of the 'oppa gate' scandal and conduct a comprehensive investigation into whether any other politicians were involved."