![Young handball players retrieve official balls and training equipment from the handball arena at Olympic Park in Songpa-gu, Seoul, on Monday, a day after the venue served as a ballot-counting center. [Yonhap]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/06/09/news-p.v1.20260609.0e07d5021f8a423c9d4d840aa46907c7_P1.jpg)
Kim Hyeon-tae, the former commander of the Army Special Warfare Command's 707th Special Mission Battalion, has floated a conspiracy theory claiming that young handball players who entered a ballot-counting venue during the June 3 local elections were operatives in disguise sent to remove ballot boxes.
Kim made the claim Monday in a YouTube broadcast with far-right YouTuber Jeon Han-gil in front of the handball arena at Olympic Park in Songpa-gu, Seoul. "I have a reasonable suspicion that they entered the arena disguised as athletes in order to move ballot boxes," he said.
He alleged that the number of people who entered the building differed from the number who came out, and said he had received a tip that ballot boxes were seen being moved inside.
Around 10 a.m. Monday, six members of the women's youth handball national team, wearing uniforms bearing the national emblem, arrived at entrances 1 through 5 of the Olympic Park handball arena and pleaded with protesters to let them in.
The players had a training session scheduled ahead of the 25th World Women's Junior Handball Championship (U20), which opens in Jinzhong, Shanxi Province, China, on June 24.
But with the arena blockaded by protesters, they had come to retrieve their training equipment so they could practice instead at the nearby Korea National Sport University.
Protesters blocked their way, demanding to know how they could be sure the visitors were really handball players and asking them to show match footage for facial verification.
Police officers guarding the entrance asked for cooperation, noting that the players were juniors and likely had no match footage available. The players said they needed the official balls stored inside, but protesters refused to back down, asking why those particular balls were necessary.
Ultimately, one player clasped her hands together and begged, "Please," and the protesters relented and let them through.
At 10:24 a.m., the players emerged with carts and vinyl bags containing balls and other training gear. Protesters swarmed them and began inspecting their belongings, looking for ballots or other alleged evidence of election fraud. The players complied.
One male protester suggested the players should be made to remove their socks as well, a remark that drew a warning from police and others present that it could cause sexual humiliation.
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