The Democratic Party of Korea has launched a broad offensive against independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon over allegations that his daughter padded her academic credentials. The move marks a shift away from the party's earlier strategy of ignoring Han's repeated attacks on the government, with the leadership and standing committees now stepping up pressure. Still, some inside the party worry that concentrating the full weight of a dominant ruling party on a single lawmaker could end up boosting his political standing instead.
According to political sources on the 13th, lawmakers from the Democratic Party and other pro-government parties challenged the police investigation into the allegations during a parliamentary audit of the Korean National Police Agency at the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee the previous day, calling for a reinvestigation and an internal inspection.
Rep. Yoon Kun-young of the Democratic Party questioned the fairness of the inquiry, saying investigators summoned the complainant six times over 20 months while questioning the accused only once, in writing. Rep. Jung Chun-sook of the Rebuilding Korea Party said police had halted judicial cooperation at the time out of deference to prosecutors.
Kim Jong-cheol, acting commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency, responded that he would not rule out a full reinvestigation if new facts came to light. Asked about an internal inspection of the officers who handled the case, he said police would review follow-up steps after establishing the facts, including through a Ministry of Justice audit.
The party leadership also joined the push. Han Min-soo, a Democratic Party supreme council member, said at a council meeting the previous day that prosecutors had themselves blocked a key avenue of the investigation, questioning whether anyone would accept the outcome as a legitimate result. Kang Deuk-gu, head of the Democratic Research Institute, said Han's daughter had only coordinated and supported other volunteers' class schedules remotely, rather than tutoring at a community child center in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province.
Han, who is currently in the United States, pushed back immediately. In a social media post, he said the case had gone before an investigation review committee twice and been cleared both times, and he characterized the Democratic Party's claims as political retaliation.
Analysts say the party abandoned its hands-off approach and chose direct confrontation in part to blunt the impact of Han's successive attacks on public opinion. Within the party, however, some argue that responding to Han only sharpens a narrative pitting a dominant ruling party against a lone lawmaker.
A two-term Democratic Party lawmaker from the Seoul metropolitan area said there was no need to play along, warning that Han could end up looking as though he were taking on the entire party. A first-term lawmaker said that waging a war of words when the practical impact is limited merely hands him an opening to counterattack.