The opposition's offensive is intensifying over the first Cabinet reshuffle of the Lee Jae-myung administration. Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won faced the release of additional audio recordings tied to allegations of lobbying for approval of a COVID-19 treatment clinical trial. Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Minister nominee Yong Hye-in is also under mounting scrutiny over alleged Labor Party "under-organization" activities. The opposition again set its sights on Kim Hyun-ji, the first presidential secretary in charge of the first annex, as the "personnel manager."
◇ Allegations grow over "clinical trial lobbying," "under-organization" involving Kim Seung-won and Yong Hye-in
Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon on the 6th released additional audio tied to the lobbying allegations against the nominee. According to the transcript of an Oct. 12, 2021 call between the nominee and a broker, a person surnamed Yang, made public by Han, the nominee said before texting then Minister of Food and Drug Safety Kim Gang-lip, "I'll try saying something so that it's handled directly," and, "I'll ask the Minister to look into it personally and to report back."
In a subsequent call, the nominee said, "They said they will report to me, so please wait a bit. The Minister said, 'We are assigning all available personnel to help expedite the process,' giving a principled answer." When Yang replied, "They say it won't move past the Director level," the nominee answered, "It's blocked at the Director level? Got it."
According to Han, on Oct. 12, 2021, the day of the nominee's call with Yang, the secretary to former Minister Kim texted the then clinical policy Director at the Ministery of Food and Drug Safety, saying, "Director, lawmaker Kim Seung-won sent a separate text. The Minister said to look into it, and to make sure such matters don't surface from that side going forward."
Yong Hye-in is facing allegations of an "under-organization." The claim is that the Social Party, the Labor Party, and the Basic Income Party were run by a small secret group, the so-called "under-organization." A veteran activist, Kim Gil-oh, CEO of Korea Boardgames, was pointed to as the figure behind the group.
People Power Party floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik wrote on Facebook the same day, "There is growing suspicion that Representative Yong is merely a plausible political product presented publicly by the under-organization," adding, "There are revelations that the secret group, under the absolute influence of CEO Kim Gil-oh, had doctrines such as premarital chastity and bans on dating, and has resembled a closed, pseudo-religious group that repeatedly committed internal sexual violence."
◇ Kim Hyun-ji mentioned again as the "personnel manager"
The People Power Party brought up Kim Hyun-ji, a top aide to President Lee Jae-myung and part of the "Seongnam line," again. The party intensified its offensive after Seo Yong-ju, head of the Mac Politics and Society Research Institute and a former full-time deputy spokesperson for the Democratic Party, said on a YouTube program, "Is there a personnel line? The personnel line is Kim Hyun-ji."
People Power Party chief spokesperson Choi Bo-yun said in a commentary the same day, "The Democratic Party scrambled to explain it away as a joke after even a Democratic Party insider, not knowing the mic was on, confessed, 'The personnel line is Kim Hyun-ji,'" adding, "She is not on the Blue House's official personnel line, but everyone senses her presence as an approver. That is the true identity of this mysterious 'nuna.'"
Choi added, "In the bizarre contrast between a personnel chief whom even lawmakers do not know by name and a first annex secretary whose name many citizens do know, the people have the right to ask the truth, and the Blue House has the duty to answer," and, "We will uncover, down to the core, this administration's personnel abuses and hold those responsible to account."