'Favoritism in Hiring Children' Former Election Commission Deputy Secretary Song Bong-seop Appears for Warrant Hearing

Song Bong-seop, former Deputy Secretary-General of the Central Election Commission (60), who is accused of requesting special favors for his daughter's employment from the personnel officer of the Chungbuk Election Commission, is at a crossroads regarding detention.

Allegation of 'Daughter's Unfair Employment' - Former Deputy Secretary-General of the Election Commission Song Bong-seop's Warrant Hearing. [Image Source=Yonhap News]

At 10:30 a.m. on the 7th, Judge Kim Mi-kyung, in charge of warrants at the Seoul Central District Court, is conducting a detention hearing (warrant substantive examination) for Song, who is charged with abuse of authority and obstruction of official duties by deception.

Song, who appeared at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-dong, Seoul, for the detention hearing, headed to the courtroom without responding to reporters' questions such as "Do you admit to requesting special favors for your daughter's employment?" and "Do you have any comments for the ordinary applicants who are preparing silently?"

Han, a former manager of the Chungbuk Election Commission who was also subject to a detention warrant, also appeared at the court but did not respond to reporters' questions such as "Is it true that you accepted the request and designated the applicant as successful?" and "Did you get involved in hiring the child of a high school classmate?"

According to the prosecution, Song is accused of requesting Han, who was in charge of personnel affairs at the Chungbuk Election Commission, to hire his daughter (who was then working at Boryeong City Hall, Chungnam) as a public official at the Chungbuk Election Commission during the public official career recruitment around January 2018.

Han is investigated to have designated Song's daughter as a successful candidate before the recruitment process even began and then proceeded with the recruitment process only formally.

Additionally, Han is also accused of designating the daughter of his high school classmate Lee as a successful candidate by deciding Lee's daughter's residential area as the target region for career recruitment and then proceeding with the recruitment process formally to hire her as a public official at the Chungbuk Election Commission.

The suspicion of recruitment corruption at the Election Commission surfaced in May when it was revealed that the children of the Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General of the Election Commission were hired by the commission. The Election Commission announced that it identified 21 cases of special favor hiring involving high-ranking officials through an internal investigation, but a subsequent on-site investigation by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission revealed a total of 353 suspected cases of recruitment corruption, including suspicions of 58 unfair passings in career recruitment conducted from 2017 to May of last year.

Based on these investigation results, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission requested the prosecution to investigate those responsible for the faulty recruitment and cases requiring clarification of family favoritism or improper requests.

The decision on whether to detain Song and Han is expected to be made as early as this afternoon.

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