The Korea Herald

피터빈트

Police drop charges against presidential press aide over election law violations

By Yonhap

Published : Nov. 18, 2022 - 15:39

    • Link copied

Rep. Kim Eun-hye (Yonhap) Rep. Kim Eun-hye (Yonhap)

SEONGNAM -- Police decided Friday not to refer Kim Eun-hye, senior presidential secretary for press affairs, to the prosecution over allegations she violated the election law by underreporting personal assets.

The Bundang Police Station in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, made the decision, citing the facts that she had previously reported the same amount of assets three times as a lawmaker and that she had already clarified the mistakes to the election authorities.

The Gyeonggi Province chapter of the opposition Democratic Party filed complaints against Kim in May, claiming she underreported the values of two buildings owned by her husband by more than 1.6 billion won ($1.2 million) and omitted her securities holdings worth about 100 million won while reporting her family assets ahead of the June local elections.

She filed the report with the authorities as the ruling People Power Party's candidate for Gyeonggi governorship. Kim lost the election to the Democratic Party's Kim Dong-yeon.

At that time her campaign admitted working-level officials made mistakes.

The Democratic Party chapter also filed a complaint in May that she made a false statement by denying she requested telecom carrier KT give favors to one of her acquaintances who applied for a job at the company in 2012. At that time Kim was a senior executive of KT.

The police dropped the charge, citing the prosecution had already acquitted her in the case. (Yonhap)