Audit Board's 'Statistics Manipulation' Announcement Met with Ruling Party's "Moon Jae-in State Affairs Corruption" and Opposition's "Manipulated Audit"

Audit Results Announced by Board of Audit and Inspection on the 15th
Ruling Party: "Fundamentals of State Governance Shaken"
Opposition Party: "Yoon Administration's Shameless Political Manipulation"

On the 15th, after the Board of Audit and Inspection announced the audit results stating that the Moon Jae-in administration's Blue House pressured the Korea Real Estate Board and others to manipulate statistics, the ruling and opposition parties clashed, each claiming it was the "worst state power abuse" and a "pre-determined manipulated audit," respectively.

Yoon Jae-ok, floor leader of the People Power Party, met with reporters after the party's floor strategy meeting held at the National Assembly that day and criticized, calling it "an absurd matter," saying, "Statistics are vital for truthfulness in running the country. Distorting or falsifying statistics shakes the foundation of state governance."

Park Dae-chul, chairman of the Policy Committee, pointed out at the floor strategy meeting, "State power interfered with statistics to create manipulated news and deceive the public, committing an unimaginable statistical manipulation," adding, "Since all national policies are established and executed based on statistics, this is an unforgivable state manipulation and the worst abuse of state power."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Park further stated, "Power crimes must be punished in proportion to their gravity," and urged, "The Board of Audit and Inspection has requested the prosecution to investigate 22 related individuals suspected of violating the Statistics Act, abuse of authority, and obstruction of business. The prosecution must conduct a thorough investigation and punish them severely."

Earlier, the Board of Audit and Inspection announced in the afternoon that the Moon administration's Blue House and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport exerted influence over the Korea Real Estate Board's statistical compilation process more than 94 times from June 2017 to November 2021, causing manipulation of figures.

On the other hand, the Democratic Party of Korea rebutted, calling the Board of Audit and Inspection's manipulated audit a "disruption of national order."

Kang Sun-woo, spokesperson for the Democratic Party, said in a briefing at the National Assembly's communication office that day, "As expected, this is a tailored audit result," adding, "It was a manipulated audit conducted with a pre-determined conclusion of statistical manipulation, so the result is natural."

He criticized, "Why is the previous administration's effort to accurately grasp the real estate market status and more precisely reflect the people's reality considered manipulation and distortion? The restructuring of the statistical system goes through the resolution of the National Statistical Commission, and numerous public officials and investigators participate in the statistical survey and compilation. Under these circumstances, statistical manipulation is impossible."

The Democratic Party defined this audit as a "political operation." Spokesperson Kang emphasized, "It is a shameless political operation by the Yoon Seok-yeol administration to suppress the previous government and cover up the current administration's failures," adding, "No matter how much they falsely accuse the previous government, they cannot hide the Yoon Seok-yeol administration's failures and incompetence."

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