Gangdong-gu, Strongly Responds to the Spread of False Information

Published 08 Apr.2020 21:03(KST)

Gangdong-gu Mayor Denies Involvement in Election or Providing Confidential Data... Strong Legal Action Considered Against False Reports Without Fact-Checking

Lee Jeong-hoon, Mayor of Gangdong-gu

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Gangdong-gu (Mayor Lee Jeong-hoon) expressed deep regret over the "election manipulation allegations" raised in the Monthly Chosun and the Future United Party’s campaign committee commentary, and announced that it will strongly respond to any future dissemination of false information and reports.

On April 7, Monthly Chosun and the Future United Party’s campaign committee commentary raised suspicions that “Gangdong-gu Office, led by a Democratic Party mayor, may have provided the candidate Lee with confidential information from the ‘Urban Management Plan for Revitalizing Station Area Functions’ report.”

The report in question has been pursued by Gangdong-gu since March 2019 to realize the campaign promise of the 7th elected mayor, “rational development of major station areas.” It aims to prepare a high-density mixed-use development plan (draft) considering future population growth for the relatively low-density station areas in Gangdong-gu compared to the Seoul average.

Since the report is still ongoing, the district office is withholding related information from the public in accordance with Article 9, Paragraph 1, Items 5 and 8 of the Act on Disclosure of Information by Public Agencies. However, meetings were held by distributing materials to advisory committee members and internal attendees for consultation during the project initiation and interim reporting sessions. Additionally, on December 19, 2019, at the request of Gangdong-gu Council members, an interim report on the project progress was presented during the 268th regular session.

In particular, during the Gangdong-gu Council interim report, the first part of the report (current status and basic direction) was printed and distributed to attending council members. At that time, the moderator requested understanding by stating, “Please note that the parts of the distributed materials concerning private land development were not printed as they are sensitive and not finalized,” and asked that the distributed materials be used only as a reference for legislative activities.

Gangdong-gu stated that since this report is a future-oriented mid- to long-term administrative plan independently established for regional development and is still incomplete, it is not disclosed to the public. Therefore, some media reports such as “Did Gangdong-gu Office provide confidential materials to Democratic Party candidate Lee Hae-sik?” are completely untrue.

Mayor Lee Jeong-hoon of Gangdong-gu said, “Since taking office in the 7th elected term, I have consistently emphasized the neutrality of public officials in elections. As a mayor obligated to maintain election neutrality, I have never interfered in elections nor provided candidate Lee Hae-sik with any confidential materials related to the urban management plan for revitalizing station area functions.”