Kim Ki-hyun Demands Resignation of Election Commission Chair... "Shamelessly Holding Onto Position"

Central Election Commission Faces Allegations of 'Preferential Hiring of Children' and 'North Korean Hacking'
"Rotten from the Core Revealed"

Kim Ki-hyun, the leader of the People Power Party, urged the Chairman and Secretary-General of the Central Election Commission to take responsibility for the allegations of ‘preferential hiring of children’ and ‘North Korean hacking’ and to resign.

On the morning of the 25th, during the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly, Kim said, “It has been revealed that the Election Commission was rotten from the core, but Chairman No Tae-ak and Secretary-General Park Chan-jin, who are responsible for the preferential hiring, are shamelessly holding onto their positions,” adding, “Resigning to take responsibility for the unfair employment inheritance allegations is the minimum duty to the people.”

Previously, allegations were raised that the children of Secretary-General Park, Deputy Secretary-General Song Bong-seop, former Secretary-General Kim Se-hwan, and standing members of the Jeju Election Commission, who had been working as local government officials, were preferentially hired as experienced staff at the Election Commission.

Kim Ki-hyun, the leader of the People Power Party, is speaking at the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly on the 25th. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

In response, Kim said, “They were paid high salaries with taxpayers’ money to manage elections, but instead, they were managing jobs for the children of senior officials at the Election Commission,” and criticized, “If a full investigation of current and former executives is conducted, cases suspected of preferential hiring are expected to emerge one after another like pulling out sweet potato vines.”

He also pointed out, “Among the six cases revealed as career hiring of children of Election Commission executives, four cases ignored the Election Commission’s code of conduct, which requires reporting to the head of the institution if a public official’s relative within the fourth degree of kinship is a person related to the job,” and added, “The self-exoneration audit, led by a senior official who had been denying any preferential treatment, was just a sham.”

Regarding the allegations that the Election Commission ignored the government’s security inspection recommendations despite North Korea’s hacking attempts, Kim stated, “The Election Commission refused external security inspections, claiming it is an independent constitutional organization,” and criticized, “It was revealed that they had suffered over 40,000 cyberattacks, and that six out of seven North Korean cyberattacks were not even detected. When criticism grew, they suddenly changed their stance and said they would conduct external security consulting.”

Kim emphasized, “Urgent reform of the entire Election Commission and thorough investigation by the authorities into preferential hiring are necessary.”