An allegation emerged that the son of Kim Seung-won, nominee for Minister of the Ministry of Justice, was absent for 163 days while working at a welfare institution where his mother, the nominee's spouse, serves as director. Kim's side countered that the document in question was not the son's work record but a service-use record for a person with developmental disabilities, calling it a "clear error."
According to a work log and related documents received on the 11th by Joo Jin-woo, a lawmaker of the People Power Party on The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, from the Korea Child Development Social Cooperative, Kim was employed as weekday activity service staff at the cooperative from May 2024 to August this year and was absent for a total of 163 days for "personal reasons." That is about 5.8 days per month on average.
In May 2024, the first month of employment, Kim was absent a total of six days. After that, there were months with up to nine days without reporting to work. "Early leave for personal reasons" was recorded 34 times, and "late arrival for personal reasons" 17 times.
Kim's employment contract states that Kim works five days a week (Mon–Fri), from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and receives a pre-tax monthly wage of 3.2 million won.
The institution said there were "no related materials" such as a job posting or application to verify how the nominee's children were hired. It added, "As an institution that cares for people with severe developmental disabilities, the reality is that there are no applicants when hiring full-time or professional service staff," and, "We first offer employment to those who have previously worked at our institution as day laborers."
Regarding the background of hiring the nominee's spouse, a person surnamed Park, as director, the institution said, "It was not through personal acquaintances or other private relationships, but because the person had been working at a care institution used by our children with developmental disabilities."
On the employment of the nominee's children, it added, "While the nominee's spouse was working at the cooperative's care institution, the son, then a college student, and the daughter, then a high school student, helped with the institution's care work on weekends, which led to their employment."
However, the nominee's confirmation hearing preparation team issued a statement the same day, arguing that the record was not Kim's work log.
The preparation team said it was "a clear error of misinterpreting the activity plan and activity log of a person using the weekday activity service for people with developmental disabilities as the nominee's son's work log."
It continued, "The days marked as 'absent' on the activity log indicate days when the user did not use the service for personal reasons, and do not mean the nominee's son did not report to work."