The Democratic Party of Korea urged independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon, who has been raising allegations day after day against Minister of Justice nominee Kim Seung-won, to disclose how he obtained the materials. Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Dong-a said, "Lawmaker Han is using nonpublic investigation records," and went so far as to file a complaint for offenses including the disclosure of criminal facts.
Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Dong-a held a press conference at the National Assembly press room on the 6th and said, "We are filing a complaint with the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials against Lawmaker Han, who illegally received nonpublic investigation records and is abusing them for partisan strife and political maneuvering, and against an unidentified provider who delivered the records to him."
She added, "Lawmaker Han is posting text messages, account transaction details, and related parties' call contents obtained during Kim's past investigation process on his social media account," and said, "This is clearly the disclosure of official secrets and constitutes serious crimes of disclosure of criminal facts and violations of the Personal Information Protection Act and the Public Records Management Act."
Democratic Party lawmakers are moving to actively defend as Lawmaker Han leads allegations that Kim lobbied for approval of a clinical trial plan for a COVID-19 treatment. Kim is suspected of having, in 2021, at the request of a broker surnamed Yang, asked then Ministery of Food and Drug Safety Commissioner Kim Kang-lip to approve Genencell's COVID-19 treatment clinical trial plan.
On the same day, Democratic Party lawmaker Jeon Yong-gi also wrote on Facebook, "Was Lawmaker Han's acquisition of the materials legal or illegal? If acquired legally, he should confidently disclose it," and asked about the source of the materials, saying, "From whom and under what circumstances did you obtain the recorded call between Kim and Yang?"
Party Spokesperson Cho Gye-won said in a written briefing, "Kim's civil petition to the Ministery of Food and Drug Safety in 2021, when developing COVID-19 treatments was a national task, was a public-interest grievance asking the agency to check so that a domestic small or midsize company would not suffer unfair disadvantages," and added, "Lawmaker Han is staging a trial by public opinion with recordings and investigative materials without even revealing their source."