"Venue Rental Fees Inflated"... Silence vs. Offensive Over 'Gyeonggi-Seongnam Line'

[Anchor]

This report concerns a petition submitted by a former aide to lawmaker Kim Seung-won. Materials delivered to the presidential office by the former aide detail 35 allegations of accounting irregularities, including the inflation of venue rental fees and workshop expenses during Kim's tenure as head of the Democratic Party's Gyeonggi Provincial Chapter. While Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok remained silent on the controversy surrounding Kim, the People Power Party launched an offensive, demanding clarification on whether the "Gyeonggi-Seongnam faction" was involved in the latest cabinet reshuffle.

Reporter Ha Jeongyeon has the story.

[Reporter]

This is a dossier detailing allegations of accounting irregularities, one of the documents reportedly submitted on September 17 by A, a former aide to Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Seung-won, to Senior Presidential Secretary for Political Affairs Hong Ik-pyo.

The 45-page PowerPoint document outlines a total of 35 cases across seven categories related to the Democratic Party's Gyeonggi Provincial Chapter, which Kim previously led.

The allegations range from a so-called "payback" scheme—in which certain party staffers were paid an additional 1 to 2 million won beyond their salaries and asked to return the funds to a separate account for other uses—to claiming 1.35 million won in an accounting report as hotel venue rental fees for training sessions when the actual training was held in the provincial chapter's meeting room, as well as inflating staff workshop expenses by roughly threefold before diverting the remaining funds elsewhere.

Democratic Party spokesperson Shin Hyun-young stated today (September 22) that the party leadership at the time was unaware of the former aide's petition and that the facts regarding the additional allegations have not yet been confirmed.

[Shin Hyun-young / Democratic Party Spokesperson (YTN Radio 'Jang Seong-cheol's News Myeongdang'): Regarding the costs and related matters, my understanding is that the Gyeonggi Provincial Chapter is currently in the process of verifying the facts.]

The Democratic Party leadership, including party leader Kim Min-seok, has made no comments on the issue for the third consecutive day following Kim's voluntary resignation.

The People Power Party held a rally at the National Assembly today to condemn what it called the administration's misgovernance, stating that about 10,000 members and supporters attended, according to its own estimate.

Calling the cabinet reshuffle a "personnel catastrophe" marked by the successive withdrawals of minister nominees Yong Hye-in and Kim Seung-won, the People Power Party also took aim at Kim Hyun-ji, the first personal secretary to the president.

[Jang Dong-hyeok / People Power Party Leader: We know that behind all of this are the Gyeonggi-Seongnam line and Kim Hyun-ji. Yet they only ousted 'Hoon-sik hyung' rather than 'Hyun-ji noona.']

The standoff between the rival parties over the cabinet reshuffle appears to be escalating into disputes over summoning key figures of the so-called "Gyeong-Seong line" as witnesses for the upcoming National Assembly parliamentary audit.

(Video by Shin Dong-hwan | Video Editing by Lee Seung-hee)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.