Korean Party "Mayor Park Won-soon, Representative Hwang Kyo-ahn Falsely Slandered... Will Report to Prosecutors"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] The Liberty Korea Party announced on the 11th that it will file a complaint with the prosecution, claiming that Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon's 'MERS remarks' are false defamation against Representative Hwang Kyo-ahn.

The Korea Party stated, "On the 10th, Mayor Park cleverly edited Prime Minister Hwang's remarks during the government questioning about the MERS incident in his Facebook post, making it appear as if he reported face-to-face to President Park Geun-hye only six days later and further implying that he was responsible for handling the MERS situation."

On the 10th, Mayor Park posted on Facebook, "I can testify in detail more than anyone else about what happened during the 2015 MERS outbreak and how incompetent the Park Geun-hye administration was at the time. I clearly remember the fact that the first confirmed MERS patient was reported six days before the president was briefed face-to-face, the fact that they tried not to transparently disclose the hospitals infected with MERS, and that despite causing many confirmed cases and deaths due to delayed response, then-Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn said, 'In the initial stage, if one or two patients appear, neither the minister nor the prime minister can intervene.'"

The Korea Party pointed out, "Mayor Park cleverly expressed it in a way that is easy to misread in context, as if Prime Minister Hwang reported face-to-face to the president only six days after the first confirmed MERS patient appeared," adding, "We are at a loss for words at Mayor Park's cunning." They also added that a media outlet quoted Mayor Park's post without fact-checking, resulting in false reporting, and demanded a correction.

The Korea Party stated, "The day Representative Hwang took office as prime minister was just over a month after the MERS outbreak," and pointed out, "The 'face-to-face report after six days' that Mayor Park mentions is not a fact." The first MERS patient was reported on May 20, and Hwang's term as prime minister began on June 18.

The Korea Party said, "Considering the timing of the post written by Mayor Park, the overall intent, and the way the phrases are connected, it appears that Mayor Park intended to defame Representative Hwang, who plans to run as a candidate for the Seoul Jongno District in the upcoming April 15 general election," and added, "Despite having a history of being sued for spreading false information during the MERS incident, Mayor Park has again spread false information. We plan to file a complaint with the prosecution for violation of the Public Official Election Act (false information disclosure) and defamation."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.