'Han Dong-hoon's circle pursued this case relentlessly for years'
'Suspended indictment was prosecutors' own call, not outside pressure'
'Han misled public using 100% illegally obtained internal documents'
Kim Eui-kyeom, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker who leads his party's side on the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that prosecutors had initially considered seeking a prison sentence in the case involving Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won's alleged lobbying for clinical trial approval of a new drug, but changed course after an internal review and ultimately issued a suspended indictment.
Speaking on CBS Radio's "Park Sung-tae's News Show," Kim said "prosecutors from Han Dong-hoon's circle pursued this case relentlessly for two to three years" and submitted a proposal to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in August 2023 to seek eight months in prison.
According to Kim, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's anti-corruption division chief at the time raised doubts about whether a prison sentence could be secured given the absence of any evidence that money had changed hands. The investigation team then reviewed relevant precedents and, in November of that year, submitted a suspended indictment as its primary recommendation. Kim said the suspended indictment was formally issued on Dec. 27 of the same year, following the outcome of related court proceedings.
Kim said the suspended indictment "was not the result of outside pressure but a judgment made within the prosecutors' office itself," arguing that the handling of the case against the nominee was procedurally sound.
Kim also pushed back against the contents of a conversation between the nominee and a broker surnamed Yang that independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon made public, calling it "diabolical editing." He said the phrase "hundreds of billions of won" that Han highlighted was not meant to suggest the nominee had expected personal financial gain, but rather reflected the nominee's intent to examine the matter carefully given the scale of the project.
"Han released only the sensational phrase 'worth hundreds of billions of won' to the media, misleading the public and creating a false impression," Kim said.
Kim also questioned the source of the prosecutorial investigation materials Han made public. Citing what he described as an "indictment planning document" from the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office, Kim said the document "is strictly internal prosecutorial material — not available for outside review and not submitted to courts," adding, "I have no choice but to conclude it is 100 percent illegally obtained."
Kim further suggested that the person who leaked the materials could be identified through access logs on the prosecutors' internal computer network. Responding to Han's pledge not to reveal the identity of the whistleblower, Kim said, "If it shows up in the prosecutors' log records, the original source will inevitably be exposed."
Kim also defended the nominee's petition to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, saying he believed it "had a public-interest dimension." He said the nominee had the relevant materials reviewed by an expert before contacting the then-minister of food and drug safety, and argued the communication was "not a request for final approval, but a request to follow proper procedures."
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