Police Clear Asan Mayor Oh Sehyun of 'Brother-in-law Fake Employment' Allegations

Decision Not to Forward Case Due to Insufficient Evidence

The police investigation has found that the allegations of employment solicitation involving the brother-in-law of Mayor Oh Sehyun, which were raised during the by-election for Asan Mayor in South Chungcheong Province held on April 2, are not true.

According to a representative of Mayor Oh on May 16, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Team of the South Chungcheong Provincial Police Agency notified the accused the previous day that "there is insufficient evidence to acknowledge the charges," and explained this as the reason for not forwarding the case for prosecution.

These allegations were raised during the Democratic Party primary, and former preliminary candidate Kim Youngkwon and others mentioned them publicly at a press conference.

At the time, former candidate Kim alleged that Mayor Oh, through his political secretary, had arranged for his brother-in-law to be falsely employed at a local company. The related claims spread during the election process, causing controversy.

Mr. A, the brother-in-law who was identified as the subject of the allegations, stated, "Due to these baseless political attacks, not only I but also my family and the candidate suffered significant emotional distress," and added, "We will hold those who undermined the fairness of the election with false information criminally and ethically responsible."

He continued, "We will file charges against the accuser for false accusation and defamation, and will also bring those who incited division before the party's ethics committee."

Meanwhile, Mayor Oh ran as the sole candidate in this by-election and was elected with 57.52% of the vote in the main election.