O Sehun Presents 'Myeong Taegyun Complaint'... "Patience Reached Its Limit"

"Legal Responsibility to Be Held for Kang Hye-kyung, Yeom Tae-young, Seo Yong-ju, etc."
Mentions of Fraud, Obstruction of Business, and Defamation by False Facts

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has filed a 'complaint' regarding the allegations surrounding Myung Tae-gyun, which have been consistently raised in connection with the manipulation of public opinion polls related to the 2021 Seoul mayoral by-election. On the same day, he also plans to file complaints against Kang Hye-kyung, Kim Young-sun, a former lawmaker, and others who raised and spread related suspicions.

On the afternoon of the 3rd, Mayor Oh held an emergency briefing at Seoul City Hall and stated, "We will firmly begin legal action against the fraudulent groups that undermine the fairness of elections and threaten democracy, as well as the false forces that distort the truth by amplifying and reproducing these acts." He added, "The criminal and fraudulent groups are Myung Tae-gyun, Kang Hye-kyung, and Kim Young-sun, and the accomplice groups include Yeom Tae-young (Democratic Party lawmaker), Seo Yong-joo (Director of Mac Political and Social Research Institute), Newstapa, and Newstomato." Mayor Oh plans to submit the complaint, currently being prepared by a law firm, to the prosecution within the day.

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Mayor Oh believes that if the prosecution indicts Myung and former lawmaker Kim on the same day, it will free up investigative resources. He said, "Until today, the investigations into the previously problematic issues have been largely completed and indictments made. Now, I have requested that the available investigative resources be allocated to this case for a swift investigation and clarification."

He sees the possibility of applying charges of fraud and obstruction of business against Myung and Kang. Mayor Oh stated, "Myung and Kang manipulated public opinion polls and deceived individuals such as Kim Han-jung, who were unaware of the manipulation, to embezzle money. This clearly constitutes fraud, which involves obtaining financial gain by deceiving others." He added, "If the manipulated public opinion poll data by Myung was involved in the background of Kim Jong-in, the emergency committee chairman at the time, strongly urging against unification during the 2021 election, this would clearly constitute obstruction of business."

Regarding lawmaker Yeom, Director Seo, and media outlets Newstapa and Newstomato, he said, "They repeatedly announced or reported false facts, damaging the honor of me and my campaign," and added, "We will hold them legally accountable for defamation by false facts." About the two media outlets, he noted, "We requested a correction report, but they have not complied. Criminal prosecution procedures await, and once those are concluded, civil proceedings will begin."

Oh: "I have endured extremely... unpublished polls could not have had an impact"

Yonhap News

Mayor Oh had previously stated at the Seoul City National Assembly audit in October that he had prepared a complaint against Myung. However, he delayed submitting it, judging that being embroiled in litigation would leave him unable to focus on city administration. At the briefing, Mayor Oh said, "As the busy mayor of Seoul, I have refrained from initiating litigation because diverting even a little mental energy there would not be fair to the citizens. However, as lies have increasingly bred more lies, my patience has reached its limit."

He strongly denied the suspicions and reports that the manipulated unpublished public opinion polls created by Myung’s Mirae Korea Research Institute played a role in his election victory. Mayor Oh explained, "Unpublished polls cannot influence primary elections or unification processes as they are general public opinion polls. They effectively have no impact." He added, "If they had delivered bogus polls to us, we would have been confused as well. Since Myung was expelled from the campaign at the time, it was an attempted fraud against us. However, the fact that the results were delivered to Kim Jong-in, the emergency committee chairman at the time, was acknowledged by Kim. That side is therefore guilty of completed fraud."

Mayor Oh also claimed that the opposition party is colluding with the manipulation for political purposes. He emphasized, "The Democratic Party, led by the accused criminal Lee Jae-myung, is trying to gain political advantage by using the fraudulent criminal group. Their goal is to tarnish my image negatively and inflict political damage."