Lee Jun-seok "President Yoon Demanded Nomination of a Specific Market Candidate"

Lee Jun-seok, a member of the Reform New Party, revealed on the 14th that there is evidence President Yoon Seok-yeol intervened in candidate nominations ahead of the June 1, 2022 local elections when he was the leader of the People Power Party.

After returning from an overseas trip and arriving at Incheon Airport, Lee told reporters, "A certain provincial party chairman pleaded to the president that 'Lee Jun-seok does not listen,' and the president asked me to handle the nomination of a specific mayoral candidate in a certain way."

Earlier, some media outlets reported that regarding the 'Myung Tae-gyun and Kim Geon-hee’s alleged state affairs interference,' Lee sent a message to Ms. Myung on May 9, 2022, stating that "President Yoon told [her] to have former lawmaker Kim Young-seon run in the primary."

It is interpreted that Lee actively clarified the situation as suspicions of Kim’s interference in candidate nominations expanded to include himself, who was then the leader of the People Power Party, and as the possibility of a prosecution investigation was mentioned.

Lee said, "At the time, Ms. Myung believed that she had told the president and that former lawmaker Kim Young-seon would receive the nomination," adding, "there was no confirmed atmosphere that former lawmaker Kim Young-seon was given a sole nomination, so I was just relaying what I heard."

However, Lee said, "I changed my phone, so there are no messages left that can be verified."

Lee stated, "A lot of information comes in around the time of nominations. Ultimately, it was incorrect information, and I was just passing along what I heard," adding, "I was not in a position to directly ask the nomination committee," drawing a line against the allegations of interference in nominations.

He continued, "If the prosecution needs to verify anything and wants to investigate, I will of course go and provide more definite information than what is already out there," adding, "I even looked for records of active communication with the president during the nomination period. I saw many ridiculous things that made me laugh."

Additionally, Lee mocked the allegation that Ms. Kim gave a 5 million won cash envelope to Ms. Myung, saying, "There seem to be various stories about whether it was received in September 2021 or June 2022, so Ms. Kim has one more thing to explain," adding, "She only bought me a single hamburger."