Yoo Sang-beom "Kim Nam-guk's Mental Victory... Conflict of Interest According to Gong Yun-beop"

Yoo Sang-beom, a member of the People Power Party, criticized Kim Nam-guk of the Democratic Party of Korea over the '6 billion won coin' suspicion, saying, "According to the Public Officials Ethics Act, it is a conflict of interest."

On the 9th, Yoo said on MBC's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' program, "According to Article 2, Paragraph 2-1 of the Public Officials Ethics Act, there is an 'obligation to prevent conflicts of interest,' which states that the appropriateness of performing duties must be ensured so that there is no financial interest in the performance of duties." He added, "In other words, holding a large amount of coins while proposing a tax deferral bill of that kind can be interpreted as a clear violation of the obligation to prevent conflicts of interest."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

He also added that the 'Article 5, Paragraph 3, Subparagraph 1 of the Conflict of Interest Prevention Act,' which Kim mentioned when explaining that it was not a conflict of interest, applies to employees of the Ministry of Government Legislation, not to members of the National Assembly.

Earlier, Kim had posted on his social media (SNS) that "the public is not criticizing the act of trading coins itself," and thanked Yoo, who commented, "The people are not criticizing the act of coin trading itself," by saying, "Thank you to fellow member Yoo of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee for confirming that there is no illegal matter." In response, Yoo said, "Kim's mental victory," adding, "I am uncomfortable with the way he interprets any statement in a self-serving manner."

He continued, "What I pointed out is that the public's criticism is about Kim's insufficient explanation, and also that Kim had previously portrayed himself as a poor and honest politician who only ate ramen and wore worn-out shoes, but in reality, he owns 6 billion won worth of coins and is a wealthy person with large cash assets. Isn't this a form of playing the victim? That is the essence," he said, adding, "this is what I am saying, but to interpret and evaluate it as if I said there is no illegality is very uncomfortable."

Kim revealed the source of funds through his SNS the day before, stating, "I sold all my LG Display stocks, generating a deposit of 985.74 million won, and used that amount as the initial investment for coins." However, there are still suspicious parts. Yoo pointed out, "He said he bought all the coins with 900 million won from stock investment and that there was a coin transfer during the process, but 800 million won was transferred as a jeonse deposit. Yet, the deposit increased by another 1 billion won. This cannot be explained."

Also, Kim explained that he only co-sponsored the coin tax deferral bill but did not support it, but in reality, he supported other coin tax deferral bills. Yoo said, "We confirmed that he actively expressed support for other bills with the same content."

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