Park Beom-gye: "Kim Oh-soo's History as Legal Advisor for Seongnam City Does Not Raise Issues... 'Volunteering Aspect'"

Minister of Justice Park Beom-gye [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] Minister of Justice Park Beom-gye stated that he "does not feel any particular concern" regarding Prosecutor General Kim Osu's activities as an advisory lawyer for Seongnam City during his time as a practicing attorney.

On the morning of the 18th, Minister Park, while arriving at the Ministry of Justice Gwacheon Office, told reporters, "(Prosecutor General Kim) served as an advisory lawyer on a volunteer basis for the local government where he resided," expressing this view.

Previously, Prosecutor General Kim served as an advisory lawyer for Seongnam City from December last year until May 7, before his appointment as Prosecutor General. Kim also maintains that his advisory lawyer role is unrelated to the Daejang-dong allegations. After related reports surfaced, he stated, "The advisory fee of 300,000 KRW per month was fully deposited into the law firm's account and accounted for," adding, "The lawsuit regarding Seongnam City public construction payments was handled by the firm."

During the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee's audit held that morning at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, Prosecutor General Kim also said, "My activities as an advisory lawyer have nothing to do with the Daejang-dong case," and "I was dismissed immediately after being appointed Prosecutor General." He further emphasized, "I was the first to review the Daejang-dong case and directly ordered the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office to investigate, repeatedly stressing that the investigation should be thorough without any sanctuary, including Seongnam City Hall."

Regarding former Prosecutor General and People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl's remark at a debate that "I feel there is a massive conspiracy involving the Ministry of Justice, the prosecution, and the ruling party sharing information to discredit me," Minister Park said, "I will address this at the upcoming audit day after tomorrow," but refrained from elaborating, stating, "It is not a pleasant topic."

Concerning the Ministry of Justice's recent plan to improve the system to allow immediate search and seizure of a subject's residence in case of an emergency involving the destruction of electronic monitoring devices (electronic anklets), Minister Park explained, "We are closely reviewing whether it will be an urgent search and seizure or an immediate administrative enforcement," adding, "Ultimately, we aim to create a mechanism that can produce the same effect."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.