Prime Minister nominee Kim Min-seok is facing growing calls from the main opposition party to withdraw from his nomination over political slush fund scandals that occurred in the 2000s.
The four-term liberal lawmaker, who was nominated for prime minister by President Lee Jae Myung on June 4, was convicted by the country's top court in 2005 of violating the Political Funds Act by receiving 200 million won ($146,500) in illegal funds from conglomerate SK Group in 2002. He received the funds during his campaign for Seoul mayor as the candidate for the Millennium Democratic Party, the main liberal party at the time.
The Supreme Court in 2005 sentenced Kim to eight months in prison, two years of probation and the forfeiture of 200 million won, finding him guilty of violating the Political Funds Act.
Additionally, the Supreme Court in 2010 found him guilty in a separate political slush fund case, in which he received illegal funds worth a combined 720 million won from three of his aides in 2007. He was fined 6 million won and forfeited 720 million won for violating the Political Funds Act again.
The main opposition People Power Party has recently ramped up its calls for Kim to withdraw his nomination.
The main opposition members of the National Assembly's special committee on personnel hearing, including People Power Party Rep. Bae Joon-young, claimed Tuesday that "candidate (Kim) and the Democratic Party of Korea are not cooperative" with the preparations for the prime minister nominee's upcoming parliamentary hearing. The committee announced Tuesday afternoon that Kim's confirmation hearing has been scheduled for June 24 to 25.
The 13-member committee, tasked with handling the nominee's confirmation hearing, is formed of seven Democratic Party lawmakers, five People Power Party lawmakers and one non-parliamentary member.
The People Power Party members of the committee urged Kim and the ruling party to submit evidence and summon witnesses tied to multiple accusations surrounding Kim, including his political slush fund case.
People Power Party spokesperson Ho Jun-seok even proposed launching a special counsel investigation into the charges in a Monday commentary.
Kim has repeatedly brushed off his court convictions as mere “allegations.”
"The targeted investigation (against me by the prosecution) did not end the first time," Kim wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday.
The post echoes his Facebook post shared the previous day, where he wrote, "the Political Funds Act case is essentially a targeted investigation of me by a political prosecution — it is a targeted investigation that does not even make clear who demanded the political funding and why."
Kim said that his party at the time asked for corporate donations without his knowledge.
President Lee, meanwhile, downplayed the scandal surrounding Kim when speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Canada for the G7 summit early Tuesday. "I asked Kim in person and he explained that they were mere allegations, which he can sufficiently explain at the confirmation hearing," Lee told reporters.
Besides the political slush fund scandals, Kim is accused of abusing his power as a lawmaker to aid his son's extracurricular projects and help him gain admission to a US university. Critics are also questioning the master's degree Kim claims to have received from Tsinghua University in China in 2010, which was the same year he ran for mayor of Busan and failed.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
