Lee Jun-seok "The Oppa I Know Is Yoon... I Don't Know Kim Lady's Real Brother"

"Have Seen Kim Yeosa-Myung Taegyun's KakaoTalk... Lots of Small Talk"

Regarding the controversy over the so-called 'oppa issue' that arose after the KakaoTalk conversation between First Lady Kim Keon-hee and Myung Tae-gyun, a key figure suspected of interfering in candidate nominations, was revealed, Lee Jun-seok, a lawmaker from the Reform New Party, said, "From my perspective, oppa is the president."

Lee Jun-seok, a member of the Reform New Party, is speaking. Photo by Yonhap News

On the 21st, Lee appeared on CBS Radio's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' and said, "In the revealed KakaoTalk conversation, it says 'It will be resolved if you meet Jun-seok,' but I do not know a person named Kim Jin-woo, who is Kim Keon-hee's biological older brother," adding, "I have never introduced myself to him nor spoken with him."

On the 15th, Myung posted on his Facebook the KakaoTalk conversation he had with the First Lady. In the revealed conversation, Kim mentioned, "Please forgive our oppa who speaks foolishly," which sparked controversy over who the 'oppa' referred to was. Initially, Myung stated, "Kim's biological older brother does not know about political matters," leading to suspicions that the oppa in the KakaoTalk conversation was President Yoon Seok-yeol. However, three days later, on the 18th, he said, "Oppa is indeed Kim Keon-hee's biological older brother."

Lee said, "In the context of the conversation, it says 'If you meet Jun-seok,' so naturally, the person who caused trouble for me is the president," adding, "I do not know Mr. Kim Jin-woo, so I have never been angry at him. But I have been very annoyed with the president many times."

Regarding Myung's claim that there are 2,000 KakaoTalk screenshots of conversations with the First Lady, Lee said, "If there are 2,000 pages, there wouldn't be that many work-related matters," adding, "It means there were a lot of casual talks, and I have seen some parts of those casual talks."

When asked by the host what kind of casual talks they were, Lee said, "President Myung just talked about things like 'I saw something in a dream,'" adding, "Since it was casual talk between acquaintances, I thought it was not worth disclosing. But since I saw it, I think there could have been about 2,000 pages of conversation (screenshots)."

Regarding Myung's claim that he influenced the 2021 Seoul mayoral by-election and the 2021 People Power Party leadership election, which elected Lee as party leader, Lee said, "Since he is a businessman, it is natural for him to say 'I did it all,' but my election was held during COVID-19, so no one could come to the site."

Lee added, "Usually, in a party leadership election, a lot of manpower is mobilized, but I did not receive such help. All I did was participate in debates and speech meetings," and dismissed Myung Tae-gyun's contribution by saying, "President Myung's contribution was none at all."