On the morning of the 14th, at the National Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee, a hearing on the impeachment recommendation investigation of Prosecutor Kim Young-chul took place. Only one witness, Prosecutor Lim Eun-jeong from Daejeon District Prosecutors’ Office, attended the hearing. The hearing, led by the progressive camp, had a low turnout, with 24 out of 25 witnesses and persons of interest absent. During the hearing, tensions briefly rose when Democratic Party member Jeon Hyeon-hee mentioned a luxury handbag issue unrelated to the committee’s work, which led to protests by members of the People Power Party.
Chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, Jeong Chung-rae, stated during the hearing that this impeachment hearing on a current prosecutor is the first of its kind in constitutional history. He expressed disappointment and concern towards those who did not attend the hearing, promising to take legal action against them for disrespecting the people.
The hearing raised suspicions of backdoor deals involving Prosecutor Kim and Jang, with a decision made to conduct verification at Seoul Detention Center. Opposition party member Yoo Sang-beom demanded to limit the verification period to the time frame when the alleged crime occurred, but was countered by Democratic Party member Kim Yong-min, stating that the investigation should be broad. In addition, lawmaker Seo Young-gyo of the Democratic Party disclosed a KakaoTalk conversation in which Jang referred to Prosecutor Kim as ‘brother’ and claimed that Jang held his son’s birthday party in a prosecutor’s office.
The Democratic Party cited reasons for the impeachment of Prosecutor Kim, including investigating a separate case related to the Democratic Party’s congress money envelope incident, public disclosure of the list of lawmakers implicated in the money envelope receiving, perjury coaching to Jang during the ‘Choi Soon-sil Gate,’ and allegations of favorable treatment regarding corporate sponsorships while Kim’s wife was the company’s CEO. Jang denied the allegations, submitting phone call recordings and messages exchanged with Prosecutor Kim. The prosecution explained that the corporate sponsorship allegations were cleared after written testimonies from Kim’s wife and mandatory investigations of sponsor companies.