Prosecution resummons 'political broker' for further investigation

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Prosecution resummons 'political broker' for further investigation

Published: 06 Mar. 2025, 18:05

CHO JUNG-WOO
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Self-proclaimed political broker Myung Tae-kyun leaves the Changwon District Court in South Gyeongsang after attending an arrest warrant hearing on Nov. 14, 2024. [NEWS1]

Prosecutors on Thursday summoned self-proclaimed political broker Myung Tae-kyun for a second time as part of their investigation into allegations of influence-peddling in candidate nominations and fabricating opinion polls on behalf of the Seoul mayor.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office questioned Myung at the Changwon District Prosecutors’ Office in South Gyeongsang and is expected to continue interrogating him through Friday. Myung, who has been in custody at Changwon Prison since December on charges of violating the Political Funds Act, was also questioned last Thursday and Friday following the National Assembly’s approval of a special counsel probe into his alleged activities on Feb. 27.

Prosecutors also summoned Kang Hye-kyung, the former accounting manager for ex-People Power Party (PPP) Rep. Kim Young-sun, as a witness on Wednesday. Kim was the first to expose the allegations. Kang also served as deputy chief of the polling agency Future Korea Research Institute, which Myung is reportedly involved in operating.

During Thursday’s questioning, prosecutors focused on Myung’s alleged role in fabricating polls ahead of the 2021 Seoul mayoral by-election. Myung has claimed that he “met with Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon seven times” during the campaign and testified that Oh personally called him, requesting a “poll result that would give him an advantage over his opponent, PPP Rep. Na Kyung-won.”

Oh has been denying such claims since they first surfaced. While he acknowledged meeting Myung through Rep. Kim Young-sun, he said he cut ties with him after discovering a test survey result was unreliable in January 2021. On Feb. 26, prosecutors raided the residence and office of Kim Han-jeong, a known sponsor of Oh, over allegations that he paid around 33 million won ($24,000) to Myung for polls in support of the Seoul mayor.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon attends a debate on constitutional amendments at the National Assembly Library in Yeouido, western Seoul, on March 6. [NEWS1]

Oh’s aides have denied any involvement in manipulating opinion surveys, stressing that the financial transactions between Myung and Kim are unrelated to Oh’s campaign.

Myung is also accused of lobbying for former PPP lawmaker Kim’s nomination as the party’s candidate in the June 2022 by-election for the Changwon Uichang parliamentary seat. Prosecutors suspect that President Yoon Suk Yeol supported Kim’s nomination in return for free opinion surveys that Myung allegedly conducted on Yoon’s behalf during his successful presidential campaign earlier that year.

Kim won the by-election after securing the PPP nomination and served a single term as a lawmaker. Prosecutors allege that she later paid Myung approximately 80.7 million won in return for his lobbying efforts.

Both Myung and Kim were indicted in December on charges of violating the Political Funds Act, which prohibits using money to influence candidate nominations.

On Thursday, prosecutors also summoned Kim Tae-yeol, former chief of the Future Korea Research Institute, for questioning.

Meanwhile, a civic group on the same day filed a complaint against Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo with the prosecution over alleged violation of political funding laws, accusing his acquaintance of paying Myung to conduct opinion surveys for him.

Hong, who has announced that he will resign from his mayoral post to run for president if an early election is held, has denied the allegations and his ties to Myung, whom he regarded as a “scammer.”

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [[email protected]]