Opposition: "Money Envelope Investigation is Political Oppression"... Han Dong-hoon: "Nonsense"

Attendance at Party-Government Meeting on Comprehensive Narcotics Control Measures
Q&A Session with Reporters
"Is Investigating Match-Fixing Sports Suppression?" Retorted

Han Dong-hoon, Minister of Justice, refuted the Democratic Party of Korea's claim that the investigation into the party convention money envelope incident is "political oppression," calling it "nonsense."

On the 21st, Minister Han met with reporters after a government-party meeting on comprehensive narcotics control measures and said, "Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party, officially apologized. Despite that, such distorted agitation continues, which I believe the public will not sympathize with." He added, "You mentioned a conspiracy, but the prosecution did not force anyone to distribute money envelopes at the convention to Democratic Party officials, nor did they order anyone to make such recordings."

He continued, "You talk about oppression, but if an investigation into bribing lawmakers is called political oppression, then would an investigation into match-fixing be called sports oppression?"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Yoo In-tae, former Secretary-General of the National Assembly, responded to claims that the money envelope convention is a long-standing political practice by saying, "Saying that distributing millions of won before elections is a minor crime is wrong. It's nonsense." He criticized, "I don't know which country's people those absurd remarks represent."

Minister Han also addressed allegations that the prosecution leaked a recording file from Lee Jeong-geun, former Deputy Secretary-General of the Democratic Party, stating, "If the prosecution did that, would they remain silent? Of course, it's not true, and I don't think the Democratic Party believes so either." He added, "If the Democratic Party thought it came from the prosecution, they would have already filed lawsuits."

The prosecution is investigating allegations of illegal political funds exchanged during the 2021 Democratic Party convention when Song Young-gil was elected party leader. Song, a key figure, is currently staying in Paris, France, and is scheduled to hold a press conference at 4 p.m. local time to announce his position before returning to Korea.

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