Jo Jeonghun: "Kim Geonhee and Han Donghun's Text Messages Will Be Included in the White Paper... Timing of Publication Delegated to the Emergency Committee"

"Requesting Another Meeting with Candidate Han"
"Evaluating Based on Facts Without Judgment"

Jo Jeong-hoon, chairman of the People Power Party's General Election White Paper Special Committee, decided to include the text messages sent by First Lady Kim Geon-hee to party leader candidate Han Dong-hoon in the white paper. The timing of the white paper publication has been delegated to the party's Emergency Response Committee.

Cho Jung-hoon, Chairman of the People Power Party's 22nd General Election White Paper Task Force, is speaking at the plenary meeting of the 22nd General Election White Paper Special Committee held at the National Assembly on the 8th. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

After a closed meeting of the white paper special committee at the National Assembly on the 11th, Chairman Jo told reporters, "Due to the new political environment created by the former Emergency Response Committee chairman's candidacy, the special committee decided not to make the decision alone regarding the publication timing."

When asked if there was internal opposition to including the text messages between First Lady Kim and candidate Han in the white paper, he explained, "There was no objection to the fact that it was one of the very important issues in the last general election. However, there was an opinion on whether it was appropriate to add facts that emerged after the white paper draft was completed." He added, "In this situation, many expressed the opinion that if the key figure, candidate Han, could explain what the circumstances were and on what grounds he made his judgment, it would be good to include that as is in the white paper."

Chairman Jo said, "Once again, I am requesting a meeting with candidate Han. There was a view that it is regrettable to have to piece together fragments only through the media rather than hearing directly from him." He continued, "Nevertheless, we decided not to make judgments but to describe the evaluation of party-government relations focusing on factual matters."

When asked if he still maintained his position that the white paper should be published before the party convention, which he had upheld so far, Chairman Jo replied, "Since I have decided to follow the Emergency Response Committee's decision, my opinion does not seem to be important."

Meanwhile, controversy arose after reports revealed that First Lady Kim had sent five text messages in January expressing her desire to apologize to the public, but candidate Han did not respond.

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