Key facts
- Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won denied allegations of illegal lobbying for a COVID-19 treatment in 2021.
- Kim stated he called the food and drug safety minister to prevent unfair delays in clinical trial proceedings.
- Prosecutors previously withheld formally charging Kim, determining his request could not be definitively found as illegal solicitation.
- Kim accused Rep. Han Dong-hoon of leaking investigative material in a politically motivated attack.
Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won on Monday denied allegations of illegal lobbying for a COVID-19 treatment in 2021, while acknowledging he should have been more careful in his request over the medication at the time. Kim, a two-term lawmaker, faced accusations of unlawful solicitation for allegedly asking the then food and drug safety minister to speed up the treatment's clinical trial approval at a broker's request.
"I take seriously the fact that I should have been more careful in conveying the request," Kim told reporters. "I never made an illegal solicitation to the food and drug ministry, and its review was not unfairly conducted as a result."