Hong Jun-pyo Defends Oh Se-hoon: "Misleading Public Opinion and Falsely Accusing"

Hong Joon-pyo, the mayor of Daegu, defended Oh Se-hoon, the mayor of Seoul, against allegations that he received help from political broker Myung Tae-gyun during the 2021 Seoul mayoral by-election, stating that "(the election) had nothing to do with Myung Tae-gyun."

On the 27th, Mayor Hong wrote on his Facebook, "When election time comes, all kinds of people come to the campaign offering help," adding, "Among them, there are sincere people and also fraudsters like Myung Tae-gyun who manipulate public opinion."

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon (left) and Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo are seen conversing before the start of the 8th Central-Local Cooperation Meeting held at Gangwon Provincial Office on the 6th. Photo by Yonhap News.

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He pointed out, "It is deeply regrettable that the recent indiscriminate false accusations and boasts by public opinion manipulation fraudsters make it seem as if the election was fraudulent, even though the election was not illegal just because someone unknowingly met with such fraudsters."

He continued, "The Seoul mayoral by-election in which Mayor Oh participated falls under such a case," and said, "(That election) was 100% decided by a national public opinion survey, which had nothing to do with Myung Tae-gyun. It is unreasonable to try to link it to Mayor Oh's election simply because one of Mayor Oh’s supporters received and paid for public opinion survey data that Myung Tae-gyun had previously collected."

Mayor Hong also said, "Because of so much boasting, a supporter of Mayor Oh might have gotten involved in a dispute and tried to smooth things over out of concern that Mayor Oh might get hurt, but it is regrettable that this is being twisted as if Mayor Oh is responsible."

Furthermore, he argued, "Criminal responsibility is different from administrative responsibility; it is responsibility for actions, not management responsibility," and added, "In recent cases where clear criminal responsibility has been acquitted, it is time to stop misleading public opinion and unfairly blaming things that are not even management responsibility."

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