Claims discarded ballot storage box has been found; authenticity unverified by outside experts; tipster's identity kept secret; box to be submitted after consultation with Seoul Eastern District Court

Jeon Han-gil, a YouTuber and former Korean history lecturer, holds a press conference Friday afternoon claiming to have secured a ballot paper storage box. (Lee Young-gi)
Jeon Han-gil, a YouTuber and former Korean history lecturer, holds a press conference Friday afternoon claiming to have secured a ballot paper storage box. (Lee Young-gi)

A ballot paper storage box marked "1,900 printed ballots" became a central point of contention in the ballot shortage controversy surrounding the June 3 local elections. A court had ordered the box preserved as evidence, but the Songpa-gu Election Commission said it had been destroyed — until Friday, when YouTuber and former Korean history lecturer Jeon Han-gil claimed he had obtained it.

Jeon held a press conference Friday around 2 p.m. in front of the handball stadium at Olympic Park in Songpa-gu, Seoul. "The election commission said the box was destroyed through a disposal company on Tuesday," he said. "They said it was destroyed — but I will show you now." He then produced a white cardboard box labeled "Jamsil 7-dong Precinct No. 2."

Although Jeon called the emergency press conference to unveil the ballot box, he spent fewer than 10 of his roughly 40 minutes of remarks on the box itself, devoting most of the time to claims of election fraud.

Jeon Han-gil, a former Korean history lecturer, displays a box he claims is one of the missing ballot paper storage boxes from Jamsil 7-dong Precinct No. 2, at a press conference Friday in front of the SK Handball Stadium in Songpa-gu, Seoul, the site of an ongoing protest to block access to the vote-counting center. [Yonhap]
Jeon Han-gil, a former Korean history lecturer, displays a box he claims is one of the missing ballot paper storage boxes from Jamsil 7-dong Precinct No. 2, at a press conference Friday in front of the SK Handball Stadium in Songpa-gu, Seoul, the site of an ongoing protest to block access to the vote-counting center. [Yonhap]

The box Jeon presented as a ballot paper storage box bore the labels "1,900 ballots distributed," "(Seoul mayoral election)" and "9th National Simultaneous Local Elections, held June 3, 2026." The electoral district was listed as "Seoul Special Metropolitan City" and the commission name as "Songpa-gu."

When reporters asked whether he could prove the box was the original, Jeon's team said it appeared in video footage. Attorney Lee Seong-jik, representing Jeon, held up a screenshot from a broadcast news report and said, "We confirmed that this matches the storage box shown in the footage, and we strongly believe it to be the original. Its identity with the box in the video will be established."

Asked whether an outside expert body had verified the box's authenticity, Lee said, "The expert body that could verify this is the election commission itself, which has now lost public trust," adding, "There is currently no way to verify it."

Lee said the box would be handled after consultation with the court or investigative authorities. "Since this falls under the jurisdiction of the Seoul Eastern District Court, we plan to consult with that court first, hear its views, and then decide which agency to work with," he said.

Jeon Han-gil and his supporters display a box they claim is one of the missing ballot paper storage boxes from Jamsil 7-dong Precinct No. 2, at a press conference Friday in front of the SK Handball Stadium in Songpa-gu, Seoul. [Yonhap]
Jeon Han-gil and his supporters display a box they claim is one of the missing ballot paper storage boxes from Jamsil 7-dong Precinct No. 2, at a press conference Friday in front of the SK Handball Stadium in Songpa-gu, Seoul. [Yonhap]

The ballot box Jeon claims is the original is believed to have been destroyed on Tuesday. Earlier, Kim Jeong-cheol, a former Seoul mayoral candidate, had filed an evidence preservation request with the Seoul Eastern District Court covering the ballot paper storage boxes, and the court granted it.

The court visited the site Wednesday for an on-site inspection but could not secure the box because it had disappeared. The Songpa-gu Election Commission said at the time that it had handed the box over to a waste disposal company the previous day for destruction.

The Songpa-gu Election Commission had thus declared the ballot paper storage box destroyed — making Jeon's sudden claim that he had obtained it through a tip all the more striking.

Meanwhile, an additional evidence preservation request filed by former Seoul mayoral candidate Kim was also partially granted Friday. The Seoul Eastern District Court approved preservation of some information related to the ballot paper storage box, including the name of the waste disposal company to which the box was transferred, the time of that transfer, the date and time of destruction, and the box's current storage location if it had not in fact been destroyed.


20ki@heraldcorp.com