Ahn Ho-young, a preliminary candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea running for Jeonbuk Province governor in the June 3 local elections, demanded the party leadership conduct a re-investigation into corruption allegations against his rival Lee Won-taek on Thursday, warning he could "make a critical decision." As intra-party competition over nominations intensifies, conflicts are erupting not only in Jeonbuk but also in Seoul, Chungcheong and other regions.
At a press conference, Ahn directly criticized the party leadership for deciding to continue the primary without disciplinary action against Lee. "If the party does not order a re-investigation and halt the primary, I will have no choice but to make a critical decision," he said. When asked what he meant by "critical decision," he replied, "There are strong demands from supporters that I should not participate in this primary," hinting at a possible withdrawal from the race.
Earlier, allegations emerged through media reports that Lee had a third party pay for his meal expenses. The party leadership concluded there was "no wrongdoing" after closed-door discussions at the Supreme Council. Kang Jun-hyun, chief spokesperson of the Democratic Party, told reporters, "The ethics inspection team's opinion is that there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by candidate Lee personally so far." The party leadership had previously made an immediate decision to expel Jeonbuk Governor Kim Kwan-young over allegations of providing envelopes of cash.
In Seoul, preliminary candidates Jeon Hyun-hee and Park Joo-min escalated their attacks on Jeong Won-oh following a controversy over his polling promotional materials and his remarks about former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon. Jeong had said the previous day that "former Mayor Park Won-soon and Mayor Oh Se-hoon are the same. Once they start eyeing the presidency, their stance wavers and strange things happen." Jeon criticized this as "seriously damaging the honor of the deceased." Park also rebuked the statement, saying, "I cannot accept the assessment that he ruined city administration because he was distracted by presidential ambitions like Mayor Oh. This is extremely shocking." As the controversy grew, Jeong said he "sincerely apologizes."
Signs of dispute are also emerging in the Chungbuk Province governor race. Roh Young-min, a preliminary candidate who filed for a review after losing in the Chungbuk runoff on the 4th, demanded a reinvestigation on Thursday, saying "illegal campaigning using phones registered under borrowed names must be corrected."