Oh Sehoon and Myung Taegyun Appear Before Special Prosecutor for Face-to-Face Interrogation Over Alleged Third-Party Payment of Opinion Poll Fees

Oh Sehoon Faces Political Funds Act Violation Charges
Myung Changes Stance and Appears as Reference Witness

On November 8, Seoul Mayor Oh Sehoon appeared before the special prosecutor's team led by Min Junggi, which is investigating the alleged payment of opinion poll fees by a third party involving political broker Myung Taegyun.

At approximately 8:59 a.m. that day, Mayor Oh arrived at the special prosecutor's office located in KT Gwanghwamun Building West in Jongno-gu. He appeared as a suspect on charges of violating the Political Funds Act. Although Mayor Oh had previously been questioned once by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in May, this was his first appearance before the special prosecutor. Myung, who is implicated in the same allegations, also appeared as a reference witness at around 9:14 a.m.

Political broker Myung Taegyun is responding to a lawmaker's question at the 2025 National Assembly Administration and Security Committee audit held at Seoul City Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the 23rd of last month. On the left is Seoul Mayor Oh Sehoon. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

Before entering the office, Mayor Oh presented an article to the press, stating, "This article from Kyunghyang Shinmun claims that most of the unpublished opinion polls said to have been provided to our campaign by Myung Taegyun were fabricated. Forensic analysis has revealed that even these were not regularly supplied to the campaign."

Mayor Oh is suspected of having received unpublished opinion polls from the Future Korea Research Institute on 13 occasions from Myung during the April 2021 Seoul mayoral by-election. During this process, it was alleged that Kim Hanjung, known as a supporter of Mayor Oh, arranged for approximately 33 million won to be paid on his behalf through the account of Kang Hyekyung, who was then a staff member at the Future Korea Research Institute.

Mayor Oh’s camp maintains that Kim’s payment of the costs is unrelated to them.

The special prosecutor’s team plans to conduct a face-to-face interrogation, as the statements of Mayor Oh and Myung conflict, in order to clarify the facts. Subsequently, they are expected to determine whether there was awareness of the payment of opinion poll fees, as well as whether the polls were provided in exchange for something of value.

This face-to-face interrogation was reportedly requested by Mayor Oh himself. As both sides have maintained opposing positions, the purpose is to have both parties present simultaneously to assess the credibility of their statements. Myung, who had initially agreed to participate, suddenly announced through social media four days ago that he would not attend, but changed his position again the day before and decided to appear.

On October 23, Myung appeared as a witness at the National Assembly Administration and Security Committee audit of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, claiming that he met Mayor Oh seven times during the by-election period. He said their first meeting was arranged by former People Power Party lawmaker Kim Youngsun. On January 22, 2021, Myung claimed that Mayor Oh called him in tears and said, "'The polls show Na Kyungwon is winning, but I need a poll showing I can beat Na Kyungwon,'" and requested an opinion poll. Allegations were also raised that an apartment was promised to Myung in exchange for the poll.

In response, Mayor Oh countered, "Myung suddenly appeared with Kim Youngsun, made abrupt requests, and tried to pressure us, but there were witnesses to the process of him being asked to leave, and this can be substantiated." Mayor Oh’s campaign stated that although they had contact with Myung, they decided he was untrustworthy and severed ties, and that they had nothing to do with the opinion polls.

Previously, on October 25, Mayor Oh appeared on TV Chosun’s “Gangjeokdeul” and denied the allegations, saying, "If the opinion polls were delivered to the party, the party should have compensated for them. Since our campaign never received the polls, there was no reason for any third-party payment."