Controversy over the 'Je2 Yeonpanjang Incident'... Han Dong-hoon Side "Distortion of Party Sentiment" vs Won Hee-ryong Side "Evaluation of Korea's Achievements"

'Kim Yeosa Text Ignored' Controversy... Second Yeonpanjang Incident
Han Donghoon Side "What Is the Intention of Releasing Texts at This Time?"
Won Heeryong Side "Did Missing Apology Timing Cost Some Seats?"

Regarding the controversy over 'ignoring Kim Geon-hee's texts' that arose during the People Power Party leadership race and escalated into a 'second Yeonpanjang incident' targeting candidate Han Dong-hoon, Jeong Gwang-jae, spokesperson for Han Dong-hoon's campaign, raised his voice, saying, "There should be no act of distorting the overall party sentiment and public opinion through lineup manipulation."

Spokesperson Jeong appeared on MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' on the 8th and referred to the event where some out-of-office People Power Party figures prepared a press conference demanding Han's resignation but later canceled it. He said, "It strongly resembles the Yeonpanjang incident last year during the March 8 leadership election, which prevented Na Kyung-won, then a party representative candidate, from running."

President Yoon Suk-yeol attended the 70th anniversary ceremony of the Korea Freedom Federation held at Namdong Gymnasium in Incheon on the 4th, greeting People Power Party leadership candidates Han Dong-hoon, Won Hee-ryong, and Na Kyung-won. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

Spokesperson Jeong also pointed out that the controversy over 'ignoring Kim Geon-hee's texts' emerging at such a sensitive time as the leadership election raises suspicions of political intent. He emphasized, "In fact, on January 23, there was a report on a comprehensive news channel stating that it was concluded that an apology from Kim Geon-hee was impossible at the current level. However, six months have passed, and less than half a month remains until the leadership election, yet extremely private texts have been disclosed, which inevitably raises questions."

Regarding the allegation that candidate Han "discussed nominations with relatives," he rebutted, "If there is evidence, please submit it. If it is not true, political responsibility must be taken, and furthermore, legal responsibility must also be borne." He added, "We need to unite the party, but I cannot help but ask the Won Hee-ryong campaign whether such slanderous tactics truly help our party and the success of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration."

Lee Jun-woo, spokesperson for the Won Hee-ryong campaign, focused on the fact that Kim repeatedly expressed her willingness to apologize in the disclosed texts, but candidate Han ignored it, missing the timing for an apology, calling it 'dereliction of duty.' On the same radio show that day, Lee said, "During the general election, the opinion of party members and the public was that 'an apology would be better.' The person involved said she would apologize, and if she had apologized, the election results would have been very different from now."

He continued, "Our party members are curious about how many seats were lost due to missing the apology timing," and criticized, "(Candidate Han's) failure to make a judgment at that time was a significant mistake regarding the election."

Lee also rebutted candidate Han's side, which criticized the timing of the text disclosure between Kim and Han, saying, "We are choosing a leader to lead 840,000 party members, so how else can we judge the leader's qualifications other than by past achievements and track records? The most important achievement of candidate Han is the last general election, so we have no choice but to evaluate the conflicts and results during that election process, and this discussion (about the text controversy) inevitably arose in that context."

Regarding the 'second Yeonpanjang' incident, he said, "The Yeonpanjang has nothing to do with our candidate Won Hee-ryong 100%," adding, "It is inappropriate for Han Dong-hoon's campaign to criticize us with the Yeonpanjang. Among the main parties who led the previous Yeonpanjang incident, five are currently active in Han's campaign."

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