'Lee Jun-seok is Dangerous' Defamatory Texts... Lee Requests Investigation, "Is This Experience?"
[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] On the 6th, Lee Jun-seok and Na Kyung-won, candidates for the People Power Party leadership, engaged in a heated debate over the 'party member list leak suspicion.' Candidate Lee raised the suspicion and requested an investigation from the party, while candidate Na dismissed it as a conspiracy theory.
In a post on his Facebook on the same day, candidate Lee claimed, "There appears to be a situation where the entire party member list was leaked by a specific camp and used to send defamatory messages against Lee Jun-seok."
He emphasized, "The party member list can only be used by candidate camps during the election period, and we have not sent a single message yet," adding, "If it is true that an individual, not the camp, sent such defamatory messages to party members using the list, the candidate responsible for leaking the personal information of 300,000 party members must take responsibility and resign immediately upon confirmation."
Candidate Lee also targeted senior leadership candidates, questioning, "Is this what experience and wisdom look like?" and shared a screenshot of a text message containing a YouTube link.
The video included statements such as, "Fake seeds like Lee Jun-seok must be filtered out," and "Although young, he has had various political experiences over a considerable period, ran for the National Assembly election three times, and was positioned in the leadership of a major party. What has he learned all this time? Has he only learned wrong lessons from completely irrelevant people?"
In response, candidate Na criticized Lee, saying, "What kind of new and young politics is this?" Through his Facebook, he stated, "In the morning, I raised reasonable issues and concerns, but suddenly it was deflected with the frame of a 'conspiracy theory.' Yet, he failed to present his own position."
He continued, "Then, without any evidence, he is inciting as if another candidate leaked the party member list," and directly attacked, "The candidate spreading conspiracy theories now is him. This is old-fashioned and outdated politics that completely goes against change and reform."
Candidate Lee Jun-seok, a contender for the People Power Party leadership. [Image source=Yonhap News]
Candidate Lee then shared Na's post and pointed out, "I find it strange that only candidate Na is getting upset even though I never mentioned suspicion about which candidate's side leaked the list."
He said, "During the election period, the party member list is only provided to candidates' sides, so if someone without authority sent a mass message using the list, it is natural and normal to assume the candidate leaked it," adding, "I only requested a strict investigation by the Election Commission regarding the party member list leak incident."
Meanwhile, Lee's side reportedly immediately urged the party to investigate. Son Myeong-young, deputy representative of Lee's camp, sent an official letter to Hwang Woo-yeo, the election management chairman of the People Power Party convention, stating, "Some malicious forces trying to disrupt the election and distort the results are massively distributing defamatory messages against the party leader candidates, directly violating Article 251 of the Public Official Election Act (defamation of candidates)," and requested, "Please immediately issue an order to stop the transmission of these messages."
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