"Secretary General of the National Election Commission Contacts Politicians via 'Second Phone' Ahead of Election"

The former Secretary General of the National Election Commission (NEC) was revealed to have created a 'second phone' under the NEC's name to communicate with politicians ahead of the 2022 presidential and local elections during his tenure.

According to the audit report on NEC personnel management by the Board of Audit and Inspection on the 1st, in January 2022, then-Secretary General Kim Se-hwan instructed the head of the Information Policy Division to "activate a mobile phone and bring it."

Kim Se-hwan, former Secretary General of the National Election Commission. Yonhap News Agency

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The Board of Audit and Inspection stated that former Secretary General Kim used this mobile phone to communicate with politicians. The year 2022 was when the presidential election (March) and local elections (June) took place. Ahead of the elections, the NEC Secretary General communicated with politicians using a 'non-official mobile phone.'

When asked about the content of his conversations with politicians, former Secretary General Kim responded that they were "varied" and refused to provide specific statements, saying, "I cannot disclose that part." He resigned in March of that year, taking responsibility for the so-called 'Sokuri voting' controversy, where ballots cast by COVID-19 confirmed and quarantined voters during the 2022 presidential election were transported in baskets, ramen boxes, and plastic shopping bags.

Upon retirement, Kim did not return the mobile phone activated and used under the NEC's name but took it with him. It was investigated that he reset the phone and returned it in November 2023, one year and eight months after his retirement, when the Board of Audit and Inspection began its audit.

Through explanatory materials, he claimed, "I did not intentionally take the phone; it was unintentionally included when an employee packed the belongings in the official residence." However, the Board of Audit and Inspection pointed out that this claim is difficult to trust, as NEC employees whom Kim identified as having packed his official residence belongings testified that "there was no such fact."

Former Secretary General Kim was indicted last December on charges of improperly exerting influence to have his son hired as a level 8 public official at the Incheon Ganghwa-gun NEC in 2019. The audit revealed that NEC employees referred to Kim's son as the "Crown Prince" in conversations and mentioned Kim's "excessive love for his child."

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