Lawmaker Kim takes flak for street brawl

By Kim Rahn

Rep. Kim Hyun

Rep. Kim Hyun of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, a sharp-tongued lawmaker who for years has been at the center of many rows, is creating a stir yet again.

According to police, Kim called a chauffeur service after drinking with five relatives of victims of the Sewol ferry disaster on Sept. 17 at a restaurant in Yeouido, Seoul.

The driver had to wait for half an hour because they kept drinking, police said. He became angry and got into an argument with the group, during which the relatives allegedly assaulted the driver. Two passers-by, who police said had tried to help the driver, were also involved in the fight.

Kim was at the scene but was not directly engaged in the brawl.

However, eyewitnesses say Kim and the Sewol family members provoked the driver by using abusive language.

As the driver told them he had been waiting too long and was going to leave, Kim allegedly asked him to wait.

“Do you know who I am?” she was quoted as saying.

The police summoned Kim for questioning Tuesday evening. However, during eight hours of questioning over her conduct toward the driver, police said she mostly replied, “I don’t remember,” “I did not see it,” or “I didn’t hear that.”

Police will decide whether to book her after questioning the victim and other witnesses further.

Regarding the brawl, the ruling Saenuri Party said that Kim did not try to stop the fight and that she had behaved irresponsibly.

“She belongs to the National Assembly’s Security and Public Administration Committee, which inspects the National Police Agency,” the party said in a statement. “That’s why she should be handled strictly.”

The ruling party demanded that she leave the committee immediately, adding police would not be able to conduct a fair investigation into a committee member.

Kim is currently on trial in another case involving a female employee at the National Intelligence Service (NIS).

In December 2012, just days before the presidential election, Kim and several other opposition lawmakers stormed into a female NIS worker’s studio apartment in Seoul, believing that the NIS worker had posted online comments critical of the opposition party’s candidate Moon Jae-in under the spy agency’s orders.

As both ruling and opposition party lawmakers, police officers and journalists gathered in front of her home, the worker could not come out for about 40 hours.

The worker filed a complaint against Kim and the others, saying they had confined her against her will, and the trial is ongoing.

Kim, who was a student activist for democracy in the 1980s, became part of the political community in 2000. During the Roh Moo-hyun administration, she worked at Cheong Wa Dae and became the first female head of the presidential office’s press center.

She has been regarded as a pro-Roh politician since that time, and is said to be a hard-liner in the party.