Former PPP lawmaker questioned over election nomination scandal

Nov 04, 2024, 10:34 am

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Kim Young-sun, a former ruling People Power Party (PPP) lawmaker, speaks during her appearance at the Changwon District Prosecutors Office in Changwon, nearly 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Nov. 3, 2024./ Source: Yonhap

AsiaToday reporter Kim Im-soo

Kim Young-sun, a former lawmaker from the ruling People Power Party (PPP) who is suspected of providing funds to a self-proclaimed power broker, was summoned by the prosecution on Saturday. The prosecution plans to summon Myung Tae-kyun this week as a suspect. The so-called “Myung Tae-kyun list” investigation, which began last December at the request of the Changwon Election Commission, seems to be in full swing for the first time in more than a year.

The Changwon District Prosecutors Office questioned former PPP lawmaker Kim as a suspect for violating the Political Fund Act and investigated her for the first time. Prosecutors are said to have asked her about why she handed over 90 million won (US$65,200) from her salary to Myung on several occasions in 2022 and how it is related to her nomination for Changwon’s Uichang-gu district in the June by-elections of the same year.

Kim completely denied all the allegations. When asked the role of Myung at the time of her nomination for the ruling party, Kim said, “I know only a part of his role because he speaks with a silver tongue and said he helped me in his own way.” Regarding her nomination, she said, “I have never contacted neither President Yoon Suk-yeol or First Lady Kim Keon-hee regarding the nomination. I have heard that Kim Keon-hee listens to Myung’s talk, but I have never heard directly about the nomination.”

As Kim was summoned as a suspect, and Myung’s summon seems imminent, the prosecution is expected to hit those who was influenced by Myung’s opinion polls. This is because the real names of 27 political figures from the ruling and opposition blocs, dubbed the so-called “Myung Tae-kyun list,” were revealed by Kang Hye-kyung, the accountant for Kim.

Kang appeared as a witness at the National Assembly’s audit session on Oct. 21 and claimed that the Future Korea Research Institute, where Myung was a de facto head, manipulated opinion polls in favor of Yoon Suk-yeol when he was a presidential candidate. Kang also submitted a list of politicians from the ruling and opposition parties who either received help from or made transactions with Myung, to the Judiciary Committee. Those whose real names were exposed strongly protested, calling it “completely false.”

However, as various text messages and phone calls showing the circumstances in which Myung contacted the people included in the list are being revealed one after another, the prosecution may expand the scope of the investigation if they secure relevant evidence. As the prosecution is expected to call Myung as a suspect as early as this week, it is reported that he is preparing for the prosecution’s investigation by appointing a lawyer.

#Kim Young-sun #Myung Tae-kyun #prosecution