Hong Jun-pyo: "Having 6 Billion Won in Coins Alone Does Not Make You a Young Politician"

Hong Joon-pyo, the mayor of Daegu, criticized Kim Nam-guk, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea who is at the center of the '6 billion won coin' controversy, saying, "Simply possessing 6 billion won worth of cryptocurrency of unknown origin makes him a money speculator, not a young politician anymore."

On the 9th, Mayor Hong said through his social media service (SNS), "It is truly absurd that when I asked for an explanation about the coin speculation, he suddenly attacked me by alleging embezzlement of special activity funds."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Earlier, Kim shared Mayor Hong’s post that targeted him on SNS, stating, "I have never invested in cryptocurrency with special activity funds." He was pointing out the 'special activity funds controversy' that Mayor Hong was involved in back in 2017 when he was the leader of the Liberty Korea Party.

In response, Mayor Hong said, "Regarding the special activity funds issue, the political activity expenses that were deducted from my monthly salary were instead covered by special activity funds, so the amount saved from my salary was given to my wife as living expenses. This has already been explained without any problems." He added, "If that had been embezzlement, would the administration that tried to implicate me in the Sung Wan-jong list scandal have just left me alone?"

Mayor Hong continued, "Don’t run away like that; just step into the money speculation battlefield. Stop the shameless act of exploiting youth politics while focusing only on money speculation." He retorted, "In the past 40 years as a prosecutor, member of the National Assembly, floor leader, party leader, governor, and mayor, I have never engaged in land speculation, never invested in stocks, never accepted bribes or illegal political funds, and especially never invested in cryptocurrency."

He added, "I have lived by saving only the salary I received from public office," and said, "How much loss of hope must the youth of South Korea have felt because of this?"

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