[Asia Economy Reporter Ra Young-cheol] Namyangju Mayor Jo Gwang-han once again targeted Gyeonggi Province and Governor Lee Jae-myung, pouring out emotionally charged remarks.
On the 6th, Mayor Jo posted on his SNS, "I will upload one comment per day that claims there is organized public opinion manipulation in Gyeonggi Province. Please judge for yourselves," criticizing Gyeonggi Province again since last December.
Mayor Jo especially expressed his feelings toward the province, saying, "I was going to let it slide, but this really gets on my nerves."
This is interpreted as a rebuttal to Gyeonggi Province's post on SNS platforms such as Twitter and blogs on the 4th titled "The facts regarding the claim of Namyangju city officials' comment surveillance by Gyeonggi Province."
However, there is more weight to the analysis that Mayor Jo's rebuttal was essentially aimed at Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung.
In particular, it is a subject of interest how the local political circles and the party perceive the situation where Lee, who is leading the ruling party's presidential candidate public support, and Mayor Jo, who served as an administrative officer in the Kim Dae-jung administration's Blue House and as a secretary in the Roh Moo-hyun administration's Blue House, are openly clashing.
Mayor Jo posted on Twitter, "The Gyeonggi Provincial Office's Audit Office is really pitiful and pathetic," adding, "They say there are 44 comments in total, and 19 of them say they feel offended."
He then questioned, "Is this organized public opinion manipulation?" and further asked, "If they audit because someone feels offended, that is personal retaliation. If there is a problem, it should be referred for investigation. Is the Gyeonggi Audit Office an investigative agency?"
Mayor Jo also commented, "What exactly is the criterion for intentionality in the Gyeonggi audit? A 250,000 won severe penalty?Gyeonggi Province clearly has strong intent to retaliate against Namyangju."
Earlier, Gyeonggi Province posted that "The audit conducted on Namyangju by Gyeonggi Province was based on a tip-off about 'organized public opinion manipulation,' and it was a lawful audit activity to verify the truth of media reports and the tip-off."
The province stated, "If a lawful tip-off exists and no audit is conducted, it is dereliction of duty. The police are investigating obstruction of audit by the Namyangju mayor and related officials, as well as recruitment corruption involving the audit director of Namyangju Urban Corporation," adding, "The truth will be clearly revealed through the police investigation."
The recruitment case of the audit director at Namyangju Urban Corporation has currently been referred to the prosecution.
Meanwhile, last year, Gyeonggi Province conducted several special audits on Namyangju City, stating that they were based on "suspicions raised by the media."
The province conducted a total of 33 special audits across 31 cities, counties, and districts in Gyeonggi Province last year, with one-third of them being audits of Namyangju City.
In response, Mayor Jo publicly refused the audits, even staging a one-person picket protest, and held press conferences twice at the Gyeonggi Northern Provincial Government Building, escalating the conflict between the two sides.
So far, Namyangju City and Gyeonggi Province have clashed over differences in various project implementations, with Mayor Jo and Governor Lee engaging in tense exchanges each time. As both are local government heads from the same party (Democratic Party of Korea), their confrontation has attracted public attention.
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