Lee Nak-yeon's Side: "Lee Jae-myung's Negative Campaign, Need to Determine Organizational Involvement... Requesting Truth Investigation from the Election Commission"

Park Kwang-on "The matter is serious... Questioning whether there was organized involvement"
Oh Young-hoon "Shocked by the operation of negative campaign tactics"

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] The campaign team of former Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Nak-yeon has demanded the truth regarding the negative attacks against Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung.

According to recent media reports, Jin, the administrator of a Telegram chatroom called 'Lee Jae-myung SNS Volunteer Team,' gathered supporters of Governor Lee and led the negative attacks against former candidate Lee. However, as Jin is known to be an executive at a public institution under Gyeonggi Province, Lee Nak-yeon's camp has raised the possibility of organized election interference at the provincial level and requested the Central Election Commission to investigate and prosecute those involved.

On the afternoon of the 18th, Lee's campaign held a non-face-to-face press briefing, criticizing the incident as "illegal public opinion manipulation and election interference," stating that "the matter is serious."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Park Kwang-on, a member of the National Assembly and general director of Lee's primary campaign, said at the briefing, "It is questionable whether Jin was acting alone in manipulating public opinion or if there was organized involvement," demanding an explanation from Governor Lee's side.

He also said, "What is the relationship between Governor Lee and Jin? When did Governor Lee become aware of Jin's illegal presidential election manipulation? Are there others like Jin working at institutions under Gyeonggi Province? These questions are raised along with demands for answers." He added, "We also ask whether there is a willingness to conduct a full investigation of the SNS accounts of executives and staff to resolve these three questions."

Park also requested thorough investigations into the incident by the Central Election Commission, the Democratic Party headquarters, and Gyeonggi Province.

He stated, "We hope the Election Commission will thoroughly investigate this case and take legal action accordingly, and that the Democratic Party headquarters will promptly investigate and uncover the truth." He emphasized, "Gyeonggi Province should not only take personnel actions against Jin but also cooperate with investigative agencies by reporting the case to reveal the truth."

Park added, "For reference, Jin worked as an employee of Seongnam FC under Seongnam City from 2017 to 2018, worked in the election campaign during the 2018 Gyeonggi Province governor election, and later served as the director of the Traffic Training Institute's office." During the announcement, he conveyed information from a campaign insider that "Jin was recently suspended from his position."

On the previous day, Oh Young-hoon, the chief spokesperson for former candidate Lee, also issued a statement saying, "It is shocking that a senior executive of a Gyeonggi Province affiliated organization has been systematically operating a negative operation team to interfere in the Democratic Party primary," criticizing, "Distorting public opinion through organized manipulation is an act of destroying democracy before it is even election interference."

He continued, "Just as the painful memories of illegal election interference by intelligence agencies have not yet faded, it is unacceptable that a senior public official repeated such vile political tactics in the sacred party primary," and directed Governor Lee, saying, "We demand that Governor Lee clarify his involvement in the operation of the negative operation team by senior Gyeonggi Province officials and take appropriate measures as a responsible candidate of the Democratic Party."

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