Battle over tape-recording

Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, and Yoon Suk-yeol, the candidate of the People’s Power Party, collided over the so-called “Jung Young-hak tape-recording” regarding the Daejang-dong issue. “(Kim Man-bae) said in a tape-recording that Yoon will go down if a warrant is issued and that Yoon is guilty of many things,” said Lee during a presidential TV debate on Monday, raising up a panel with the transcript of a conversation between Kim and Jung. “Towards the end of the recording, Kim mentioned ‘Lee Jae-myung’ gate,” Yoon responded. Lee raised his voice, asking if Yoon would resign from candidacy if what he said was false information. “Listen to the recording until the end,” Yoon said.

The two candidates’ battle over the tape-recording is confusing the public. The two did not explain the context behind those statements and used the parts that seem favorable to them to attack each other. The two candidates continued arguments by saying, “The phrase ‘Lee Jae-myung gate’ was used to mean that Lee is blocked by the gate, rather than there is an actual problem there,” and “’Yoon will go down’ is misinformation that is extracted with a malicious intention.”

　

Part of the reason is that only parts of the tape-recording were revealed as the court allowed the reading and transcription of the “Jung Young-hak tape-recording” to ensure a defendant’s right to defend himself. It is a structure that allows politicians to take advantage of it by quoting only parts of the recording. Some say that the entire transcript should be revealed but the prosecution remains the stance of not allowing it. What’s clear is that it is the prosecution that has caused this battle and a confusing situation. Five months after launching the Daejang-dong investigation, there is nothing found about core suspicions.

Meantime, additional suspicions are pouring in, such as a “five billion won club.” When there were reports that ‘he’ in the tape-recording refers to the Justice of the Supreme Court, the opposition party claimed that ‘real he’ is somebody else. When a media reported that it acquired investigation records regarding the suspicion that Yoon dismissed a suspect who helped the issuance of initial loans for the Daejang-dong project after simply serving coffee to him, the Democratic Party of Korea argued that it is Yoon Seok-youl gate, not Lee Jae-myung gate. The presidential election is 15 days away amid a situation where what’s true and false and what’s exaggerated and distorted are unclear. If a special investigation had been launched, it wouldn’t have led to such a level of confusion.