Presidential Office: "No Reports or Instructions Received Regarding Nominations During President-Elect Yoon's Period"

Presidential Office Refutes Democratic Party's Evidence Disclosure
"Call Was Not Important Enough to Remember"
"When Myeong Mentioned Kim Young-sun's Nomination, Spoke Positively"

President Yoon Suk-yeol is delivering a congratulatory speech at the opening ceremony of the '2024 Korea Small Business Owners Conference' held on the 31st at KINTEX in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do. [Image source=Yonhap News]

The Presidential Office stated on the 31st that the Democratic Party of Korea's release of an audio recording of a phone call between President Yoon Seok-yeol and Mr. Myeong Taegyun, which they claimed as evidence of President Yoon's interference in candidate nominations, is unfounded. The office said, "At that time, President-elect Yoon neither received reports related to candidate nominations from the Candidate Management Committee nor gave any instructions regarding nominations."

Through a statement issued by the spokesperson's office that morning, the Presidential Office explained, "The decision-makers for candidate nominations at that time were Party Leader Lee Jun-seok and Candidate Management Chairman Yoon Sang-hyun."

The Presidential Office added, "At that time, the party decided to designate all regions except Jeju Island as strategic nomination areas," and "In the Changwon Chang district of Gyeongnam, candidate Kim Young-sun was the most competitive candidate. Ultimately, Candidate Kim won by an overwhelming margin."

It continued, "The content of the phone call between President-elect Yoon and Mr. Myeong was not particularly memorable or important, and since Mr. Myeong kept talking about Kim Young-sun's nomination, President-elect Yoon just responded positively."

The Presidential Office also noted, "Meanwhile, Party Leader Lee Jun-seok recently explained in detail on Facebook that there was no problem with the strategic nomination decisions made by the Supreme Council."

Earlier, on the 22nd, Leader Lee posted on his social media (SNS) Facebook, stating, "It is comedic even to mention that the strategic nomination areas were decided by Leader Lee Jun-seok and Candidate Management Chairman Yoon Sang-hyun, as it is originally the role of the Candidate Management Committee or the Supreme Council," and added, "Current lawmaker Kim Jong-yang, who competed with candidate Kim Young-sun at the time, has testified that there were no issues in the nomination process."

On the same morning, the Democratic Party announced that it had secured evidence revealing President Yoon's interference in the June 2022 by-election nominations and released an audio recording of a phone call between President Yoon and Mr. Myeong Taegyun made the day before Yoon's inauguration.

The call took place on May 9, 2022, just before former lawmaker Kim Young-sun was nominated in the June by-election. President Yoon officially took office the following day, May 10.

The played file contained President-elect Yoon saying, "The Candidate Management Committee brought it to me, and since Kim Young-sun worked hard during the primary, I told them to let Kim Young-sun handle it, but there are many complaints from the party."

In response, Mr. Myeong said, "I will never forget this lifelong favor. Thank you."

Park Chan-dae, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, held an emergency press conference at the National Assembly on the 31st to release the recorded phone conversation between President Yoon Seok-yeol and Myung Tae-kyun. According to the transcript, on May 9, 2022, President Yoon told Mr. Myung, "The Public Office Committee brought it to me, and since former People Power Party lawmaker Kim Young-sun has been working hard since the primary, give it to former lawmaker Kim," Park said. Photo by Kim Hyun-min