Joeunhee: "Democratic Party Distributes 'Asset Omission' Fake News 8 Days Before Election... Completely Untrue"

"Before Spreading False Defamation Materials by the Ruling Party, Guidance on Property Declaration Interpretation Should Be Provided"

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] On the 1st, Jo Eun-hee, the People Power Party candidate running in the Seoul Seocho-gap by-election on the 9th, strongly refuted the Democratic Party's allegations of 'omission and false reporting in asset declaration,' saying, "The ruling party's level of producing fake news and engaging in false slander is pathetic," and added, "The Democratic Party's claims are completely untrue."

On that day, Jo said in a phone interview with Asia Economy, "I have declared my assets 15 times so far. If I had made a mistake even once out of 100 times, I would accept it, but where is such ridiculous fake news?" She raised her voice in criticism, asking, "Is it appropriate to distribute a 'press release' to the media with false slander allegations just 8 days before the election?"

Jo immediately issued a rebuttal regarding the Democratic Party's allegations of omission and false reporting in asset declaration.

That morning, the Democratic Party claimed that regarding the building owned and leased by Jo's spouse, although it is a multi-family house (urban-type residential housing, one-room type), two units were falsely reported as apartments and eight units as commercial buildings.

In response, Jo said, "If they had just checked the building register, they would have confirmed the facts, but this is an allegation made without even verifying basic facts," and rebutted, "According to the building register, the usage from basement level 1 to 4 is classified as Type 2 and Type 1 neighborhood living facilities, and floors 5 to 11 are listed as 'apartments (urban-type residential housing (one-room type))."

Regarding the Democratic Party's claim that the shared land area per unit on the land registry of the building varies from 4.7353㎡ to 18.3325㎡ but was reported as 291㎡ per unit, Jo pointed out, "The claim that the land per unit was incorrectly recorded is even more absurd. The land registry shows the total land area of the building. We were also guided by the Election Commission to report the total land area, and interpreting it as if each unit has its own land is a ridiculous interpretation."

She added, "Before spreading false slander materials to the media, they should have first received guidance from the Election Commission on the proper method of reading asset declarations."

Jo also explained that the details of 'Indeokege Co., Ltd.' which the Democratic Party claims was omitted, are reported in the securities details.

The Democratic Party argued that while Jo reported the investment of 299.3 million KRW in 'Law Firm Class' to the Election Commission, she did not report the 4.756 million KRW investment in 'Indeokege Co., Ltd.,' raising suspicion of omission.

Jo said, "I intended to report it as an investment, but the Seocho District Election Commission guided me that for corporations, asset declarations should be made in the securities section, so I reported it in the securities details."

Regarding the omission of her son's lease deposit report, she emphasized, "The lease deposit of 13 million KRW is accurately reported in the asset declaration of my eldest son's building."

Jo criticized, "This is a deliberate, absurd, and clear false slander starting from basic facts," and added, "Spreading fake news as if there are huge suspicions about asset declarations that were sincerely reported after receiving guidance from the Election Commission is a clear false slander and a low-level political attack."