Regarding the tip content: "Sparse and lacking completeness"
Lee Jun-seok, a member of the Reform New Party, claimed on the 20th that the report stating former People Power Party lawmaker Kim Young-sun demanded a proportional representation seat in the 22nd general election in exchange for exposing the 'Kim Geon-hee First Lady nomination interference suspicion' was rejected on the spot due to the lack of substance in the tip.
On the same day, Lee posted a lengthy explanation on Facebook detailing the circumstances of meeting former lawmaker Kim at Chilbulsa Temple in Hadong-gun, Gyeongnam, ahead of the April 10 general election, as well as the reaction at the scene.
Lee explained the reason for going to Chilbulsa, saying, "At 8:44 a.m. on February 29, a person related to former lawmaker Kim urged me to meet Kim directly, saying Kim knew something important. When I asked when Kim had come up to Seoul, they kept saying Kim was still at Chilbulsa, and since I could not view the captured photos without going there in person, I finished my schedule that day and traveled at night, arriving around 1 a.m."
The two had tea and talked, then left Chilbulsa at 4 a.m. and returned to Seoul. Lee also expressed a negative stance regarding the tip content and the demand for a proportional representation nomination. He said the tip presented on site was "insufficient and lacked completeness."
Regarding the demand for a proportional representation seat, he said, "I refused it on the spot," adding, "At 11:13 a.m. on March 1, I called the related person and reiterated that the story told was 'weak no matter how you think about it.' On the same day at 2 p.m., I shared this information with Reform New Party members at the opening ceremony of Rep. Geum Tae-seop's Jongno election office, and everyone was negative about it." Lee pointed out that former lawmaker Kim's side visited Kim Jong-in, then chairman of the Reform New Party's nomination management committee, and his family on March 8 to ask for a proportional representation nomination, saying, "This is evidence that the Reform New Party never promised a proportional representation nomination."
Regarding Rep. Cheon Ha-ram's presence at the Chilbulsa meeting, Lee said, "The location of Chilbulsa Temple was very close to Suncheon, where Rep. Cheon Ha-ram lived at the time," and added, "Considering the possibility of false stories, I judged that multiple people should be present."
He also criticized the media outlet that first reported the matter, saying, "We never had a structured interview for the report that came out this time," and added, "They gathered fragments from conversations over several months and reported them." He continued, "We repeatedly requested the Telegram capture screenshots before the report and consistently conveyed that we did not have them, also continuously mentioning the uncertainty of the content," and pointed out, "- Ultimately, the report was pushed forward amid denial from both the person who showed and the person who saw the content."
Regarding the 2022 by-election nomination suspicion, he said, "It was entirely entrusted to the nomination committee," and added, "Gyeongsangnam-do has never produced a female district lawmaker in constitutional history, so the nomination committee judged there was a demand for electing a female lawmaker."
Rep. Yoon, who served as the People Power Party nomination committee chairman during the 2022 by-election, refuted the allegations of external pressure involving President Yoon Seok-yeol and his wife in a statement the day before, saying, "This article is, in a word, a fictional story," and "Since no candidate had been decided at the time, there was no case of changing to former lawmaker Kim Young-sun." He added, "As the nomination committee chairman at the time, I carried out winning nominations solely based on fair nomination principles and standards, winning in 5 out of 7 districts," and "In this process, transparent standards were presented and evaluations conducted, and there was no external pressure whatsoever."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
