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Kweon Seong-dong, floor leader for the People Power Party, gives an introductory address at a conference of party candidates on May 9. (pool photo)

Kweon Seong-dong, floor leader of South Korea’s People Power Party (PPP), said Tuesday that allegations that justice minister nominee Han Dong-hoon’s daughter had fabricated items on her resume didn’t disqualify Han from the post. At the same time, Kweon acknowledged that “there is an undeniable wealth gap in Korea, and parents’ wealth leads to definite disparities in the quality of education received.”

When the host of a radio interview on CBS on Tuesday suggested that many Koreans would feel alienated by the shocking lengths to which Han’s daughter had gone to inflate her resume, Kweon dismissed that as “criticism for criticism’s sake.”

“There’s any number of lawmakers in the Democratic Party who have sent their own kids overseas to study in elementary or middle school,” the PPP floor leader added.

As for allegations that an academic article attributed to Han’s daughter had been written by someone else, Kweon noted that “as a student, she was still learning. Anyone in the learning process is allowed to get some guidance.”

Kweon was repeating Han’s explanation that his daughter had merely gotten help with editing her paper, rather than having it ghostwritten.

“It’s OK to get help with editing. It’s wrong to spin that as hiring some well-known ghostwriter from overseas to write her paper,” Kweon said.

“It’s not appropriate to get on her case like that over getting some guidance.”

Commenting on Han’s confirmation hearing, which extended into the early morning hours that day, he said, “Not only was there no knockout blow, there weren’t even any jabs that might leave him a little bit stunned.”

“If anything, it seems to me that these hearings clearly showed Han Dong-hoon to possess the capabilities and expertise to serve as minister of justice,” he added.

“If you look at the results of the hearing, it was the Democratic Party lawmakers who kept fumbling,” he commented.

He also said, “If [Yoon] goes along with [the Democratic Party’s position] that [Han]’s unacceptable even though no problems presented themselves, then he's not qualified to be president,” he said, calling for Yoon to push full steam ahead with Han's appointment.

The confirmation hearing convened for Han the day before lasted 17-and-a-half hours and finished at 3:30 am. Shortly afterward, the PPP demanded that the Democratic Party immediately adopt a hearing progress report, which it declined to do.

By Kim Hae-jeong, staff reporter

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