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Kang Hye-kyeong, who raised allegations that first lady Kim Keon-hee interfered in ruling party candidate nominations in April’s general elections, responds to questions from lawmakers during a parliamentary audit of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office on Oct. 21, 2024. (Yonhap)

Allegations of interference in political nominations by first lady Kim Keon-hee and the manipulation of opinion survey findings for current President Yoon Suk-yeol during his campaign have been escalating amid the current scandal surrounding self-proclaimed political broker Myung Tae-kyun.

Appearing as a witness Monday for a National Assembly audit of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, Kang Hye-kyeong — an accounting officer for former lawmaker Kim Young-sun — testified that she was aware of Kim Keon-hee’s involvement in Kim Young-sun’s nomination. She also claimed that Myung reported regularly to Yoon on opinion poll findings in the candidate’s favor during the last presidential election.

Kang delivered her testimony under oath with penalties for perjury. The allegations she raised were uniformly serious and would constitute severe violations of the law.

As a basis for claiming Kim interfered in the nominations of ruling party candidates for election, Kang explained that Myung “spoke from time to time about working with Kim Keon-hee,” adding that she “believed that Kim used her pull in connection with [Kim Young-sun’s] nomination.”

Kang described listening to recordings of telephone conversations between Myung and Kim Keon-hee and seeing Telegram messages sent by Kim Keon-hee to Myung. Indeed, the content of a conversation between the two that was presented during the audit that day showed Myung expressing discontent with Kim Young-sun and threatening to use Kim Keon-hee’s influence to ensure she would not be nominated in the race for the general election on April 10.

Myung was quoted as saying, “I’m giving Kim Young-sun until tomorrow, and then I’m just going to call [Kim Keon-hee] up and tell her, ‘Don’t worry, we don’t have to nominate Kim Young-sun.’ Understand?”

In fact, Kim Young-sun was transferred from her previous district in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, to Gimhae before finally being dropped. While responsibility for her not making it onto the ballot cannot be attributed to Myung alone, it is an area where the facts will certainly need to be investigated.

Kang also alleged that Myung reported directly to then-candidate Yoon on undisclosed poll results in his favor during the presidential election. Opposition lawmakers suspect that it was in exchange for these findings that Myung ensured Kim Young-sun’s nomination for the Changwon seat in the 2022 by-elections.

Other transcripts of related conversations with Myung were previously made public by the press. If the allegations are true, the acts in question would not merely be in violation of the Political Funds Act but undermine the very legitimacy of the presidential election process.

The allegations that have been presented to date are enough to demand that the prosecutors and other investigative institutions immediately probe the matter.

But when opposition lawmakers pressed Monday with calls for a thorough investigation, Prosecutor General Shim Woo-jung merely repeated that the issue was “currently under investigation by the Changwon District Prosecutors’ Office.” How can a team of just six prosecutors be expected to properly investigate a scandal that implicates both the current president and his wife?

The prosecutors need to recognize that their future hangs in the balance, and investigate this case accordingly. That would be the only way for them to restore a portion of the trust they sacrificed with their decision not to press stock price manipulation charges against Kim Keon-hee.

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