Transcript Daejeon, Transcript Great Battle

Ruling Party Demands Asset Verification of Kim Gun-hee
Opposition Counterattacks MBC Over Recorded Interview Report

[Asia Economy Reporters Oh Ju-yeon, Lee Hyun-joo] With two months remaining until the presidential election, the ruling and opposition parties are escalating their negative attacks through a ‘recording leak war.’ This follows the release of a 7-hour phone call recording of Kim Geon-hee, spouse of Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party’s presidential candidate, and the disclosure of a 160-minute phone call transcript of Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. The intensity of attacks from both parties is increasing.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 19th, the Democratic Party criticized and demanded verification of Kim’s assets. The Democratic Party’s campaign task force for current issues held a briefing at the Yeouido party headquarters and announced the results of their analysis of Kim’s academic background, career, real estate registry, stock transaction history, and asset declaration records, stating, "Kim’s total income since 1991 is approximately 770 million KRW," and pointed out, "Considering the confirmed income and career, it is unclear how she became a high-net-worth individual."

This amounts to a series of blows following false resume entries and the 7-hour phone call recording, now adding suspicions about asset formation. In particular, regarding real estate, which is a sensitive issue for the public, questions were raised about how Kim was able to purchase an apartment in Songpa-gu and the Acrovista apartment in Seocho-gu, valued at approximately 1.4 to 1.5 billion KRW, during a period (2000?2011) when her income was not high.

Kim Byung-gi, standing head of the task force, said, "It is questionable how Kim, whose main sources of income were university lecturer fees and a monthly salary of 2 million KRW from Covana Contents, was able to purchase stocks and real estate worth tens of billions in her 30s," and urged, "She must clearly explain the process of asset accumulation."

On the other hand, regarding the 160-minute abusive phone call of candidate Lee, which lawyer Jang Young-ha disclosed, no further statements were made after the previous day’s comment that "selectively editing and releasing the recording file constitutes defamation of the candidate."

The People Power Party focused their firepower on attacking Lee’s 160-minute abusive phone call. Notably, the released file includes mentions of Yoo Dong-gyu, former head of planning at Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, which is expected to cause a stir.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Lawyer Jang is the author of the book ‘Goodbye Lee Jae-myung,’ which deals with the conflict between candidate Lee and his late older brother Lee Jae-seon. In the recording file, the late Lee Jae-seon mentions Kim Hye-kyung, Lee’s wife who graduated from Sookmyung Women’s University’s College of Music, saying, "So Yoo Dong-gyu graduated from the music college, but was he hired?" to which candidate Lee responds, "How do you know that?" Lawyer Jang delivered the file to MBC and requested it be broadcast.

Regarding the part of Kim’s 7-hour phone call where she said, "I think Ahn Hee-jung is pitiful," the opposition counterattacked by blaming MBC for reporting it without filtering. On the same day, Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party, said on a radio broadcast, "In Korea, many discussions have been held by various parties about the Ahn Hee-jung case, but none of these have caused secondary discomfort to the actual victim Kim Ji-eun," emphasizing that the released recording of Kim was a private conversation. He added, "I think the media, which released and reported this, should have recognized that it could cause additional harm to Kim Ji-eun and refrained from reporting."

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