Oh's office criticizes Kim's '99.99%' remark on Seoul mayoral race as attempt to dictate court's ruling

People Power Party floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik speaks during a Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly on Thursday. (Yonhap)
People Power Party floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik speaks during a Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly on Thursday. (Yonhap)

People Power Party floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik said Thursday that Democratic Party of Korea leader Kim Min-seok's true intent may have been to pressure the judiciary. He suggested Kim wanted the judiciary to hand down a guilty verdict against Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon. Jeong's remark came after a memo listing his party's potential candidates for the next Seoul mayoral race was seen written in Kim's notebook on the floor of the National Assembly's main chamber.

"There is no dignity befitting the leader of the ruling party in Kim's conduct, scrawling the word 'OUT' next to a fellow lawmaker's name with no context whatsoever," Jeong wrote on Facebook. "Could the 'OUT' message be nothing more than a smoke screen to draw public attention?"

"It looks as if he treated the by-election for Seoul mayor next April as a foregone conclusion, stirring public opinion toward 'Mayor Oh Se-hoon is guilty' and sending a signal to pressure the judiciary into delivering a guilty verdict," Jeong said.

"If that scribble was really shown to cameras on purpose with such intent, it is a petty political maneuver and a shallow trick," he said, asking, "Is this shabby intimidation of the judiciary to drive out an opposition-party local government chief really the best they could come up with to reverse their plunging approval rating and change the political landscape?" He went on to say, "The ruling party and government must stop their petty attempts to shake up an opposition-party local government chief and pressure the judiciary."

Alongside this, Oh's office also sharply criticized Kim for saying, during an appearance on the party-run "Democratic Party TV" that morning, that he sees "a 99.99 percent chance" of a Seoul mayoral election taking place next year.

"The appellate trial concerning the Seoul mayor has only just begun, yet he has, in effect, already concluded the outcome of the trial by claiming a '99.99 percent' chance of a by-election," Lee Jong-hyun, the Seoul Metropolitan Government's special adviser for public communication, said in a statement. "Is this an order to the judiciary, which is still hearing the case, to reach that conclusion?"

"This goes beyond a mere political remark — it is an act that undermines judicial independence, and it is hard to avoid the criticism that this is a new form of pressure demanding the court reach their predetermined conclusion," Lee said. "Does the Democratic Party not recognize the judiciary as one of the three pillars of the separation of powers?"

Lee added, "The Seoul mayor's seat is not something to be decided in the Democratic Party leader's notebook. Kim must immediately stop his reckless remarks and pressure directed at the judiciary, and apologize for his careless conduct, which also insults the choice of Seoul's citizens."


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