Noh Young-min, former Presidential Chief of Staff who lost the runoff in the Democratic Party of Korea's Chungbuk gubernatorial primary, urged the party leadership on June 8 to conduct a reinvestigation, calling his retrial request "a decisive step to correct an organizationally distorted primary." Noh had filed a retrial request with the party's central headquarters after the Chungbuk gubernatorial primary results were announced.
At a press conference held at the National Assembly communication hall, Noh said, "This is not a simple objection to the primary results." He took aim at his rival, Chungbuk gubernatorial candidate Shin Yong-han, stating, "The Democratic Party's Chungbuk chapter membership roster was leaked a second time and was systematically exploited for a specific candidate during the primary process."
Noh also criticized, "There was a public-interest whistleblower report from inside a specific candidate's camp," adding, "A person who was a key figure in the opposing candidate's campaign directly reported numerous illegal acts during the primary process to the police and the election commission, and also provided tips to our side." He said the related complaint specifically detailed illegal campaign activities including the use of phones registered under borrowed names.
Furthermore, Noh alleged, "During the Chungbuk town hall meeting on the 13th of last month, Candidate Shin cunningly distorted President Lee Jae-myung's simple introductory remarks as a political endorsement and show of confidence in himself, and distributed text messages reading 'President Lee Jae-myung publicly expresses confidence in Shin Yong-han, Vice Chairman for Local Decentralization' to provincial residents on an unimaginably massive scale."
He appealed, "The 'party member sovereignty' that Party Chairman Jung Chung-rae has always emphasized is being ruthlessly trampled in Chungbuk," and called on "the party leadership and the retrial committee to conduct an immediate and transparent reinvestigation of the Chungbuk provincial party chapter with principled and resolute determination."