Kim Min-seok Silent on Kim Seung-won Controversy
Democratic Party Chairman Kim Min-seok publicly expressed concerns over the controversy surrounding Minister of Gender Equality and Family candidate Yong Hye-in, but has taken no particular stance on allegations directed at Justice Minister candidate Kim Seung-won.
On the 3rd, Chairman Kim appeared on the Democratic Party's official YouTube channel 'Democratic Party TV' and stated regarding the Yong candidate controversy, "I am hearing many concerns and criticisms and thinking deeply about it."
Chairman Kim said, "In typical cases, misconduct that was hidden comes to light through confirmation hearings and becomes an issue," and "What is becoming problematic this time is a matter of judgment on facts that are already revealed even without a hearing, which seems different from typical cases."
Candidate Yong is facing criticism over issues including maintaining proportional representative status, past political activities, organizations her spouse was involved with, use of airport VIP lounges during family travel, and fundraising for honeymoon expenses.
Chairman Kim's remarks are interpreted as watching public opinion and the candidate's clarification rather than actively protecting Candidate Yong.
On the other hand, Chairman Kim did not address the so-called 'new drug favor' allegations and other controversies surrounding Candidate Kim Seung-won.
The People Power Party has raised allegations that Candidate Kim previously received inquiries about new drugs from a broker, relayed them to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and sent an account number after the matter was settled.
People Power Party Chairman Jang Dong-hyuk claimed this is "clear bribery" and called for withdrawing the nominations of both Candidate Kim and Candidate Yong at today's supreme council meeting.
Political circles are speculating that Chairman Kim's response only to Candidate Yong's issue suggests the ruling bloc is handling the two candidates' controversies separately.
The interpretation is that this is a strategy to distance from Candidate Yong while accepting critical opinion, while refraining from commenting on Candidate Kim to avoid mounting verification pressure.
In particular, some analysts note that since the Justice Minister position is directly linked to legal and prosecution policy matters, Candidate Kim's withdrawal could pose a greater political burden to the ruling bloc.
A political circle official stated, "It appears to be a separate response strategy to leave already public political history and concurrent position controversies to public judgment, while minimizing party-level comments on Candidate Kim's allegations, which are expected to involve factual disputes and legal arguments, until the confirmation hearing," but also said, "It is difficult to definitively characterize this as intentional 'protection of Kim Seung-won' based solely on the absence of comment, as the Democratic Party may not have set an official response direction or may be waiting for the candidate's clarification."
전시언 기자 yourside@news-s.kr