Former NEC Chair Approved His Own 'Taxpayer-Funded' Overseas Trips with Spouse

It has been confirmed that former National Election Commission (NEC) Chairperson Noh Tae-ak personally approved his own overseas business trips, which included his spouse.

According to approval documents submitted by the NEC to the office of Representative Shin Dong-wook of the People Power Party, Noh personally gave final approval for all three of his overseas trips—to Australia and New Zealand in 2022, Germany and Estonia in 2024, and Denmark and Sweden last year—all of which were accompanied by his wife.

The documents include a list of travelers and the associated costs, with a note in the remarks column next to Noh's name indicating that his spouse was accompanying him.

The total costs for these trips, including the portion for Noh's wife, amounted to approximately 64 million won, 72 million won, and 90.5 million won, respectively.

Under the travel expense regulations for public officials, which the NEC follows internally based on the Ministry of Personnel Management's guidelines, the spouse of a public official can only receive travel expense coverage if they are traveling for the purpose of performing official duties.

A typical example of this is when an inviting organization abroad specifically plans an event for couples.

However, it was confirmed that on all three trips, Noh's wife only attended dinners hosted by the local South Korean ambassadors.

The local election commissions in countries such as Australia and Germany never held any events for spouses.

Noh's wife used flights 10 times across the three trips, and with the exception of two flights during the Australia and New Zealand trip, all were in business class.

For last year's trip alone, 13.11 million won was paid for airfare.

Excluding expenses such as meals, the total cost for airfare and accommodation for Noh's wife amounted to 41.29 million won.

Previously, during a National Assembly special investigation committee hearing on June 23, Noh stated that it had been the practice to take spouses on overseas trips and that he had not questioned whether there were any issues because no objections had been raised.

At the same time, he added that if there were any inappropriate aspects, he would seek ways to return the funds.

[Noh Tae-ak / Former NEC Chairperson (June 23): I am deeply sorry that this may appear this way to the public from the current perspective. I will seek ways to return the (overseas travel) costs.]

A joint investigation team of prosecutors and police is currently investigating Noh on charges of occupational embezzlement.

Reported by Jung Da-eun | Video by Lee Ui-seon | Graphics by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.