[ Byun Hee-jae · CEO of MediaWatch ]
Ahead of the 2020 general elections, MediaWatch CEO Byun Hee-jae predicted that Hwang Kyo-ahn’s conservative opposition party would suffer a defeat with fewer than 100 seats. The Yeouido Research Institute, which was responsible for formulating the opposition party’s election strategy, and Park Hyung-jun, the co-head of the campaign committee at the time, also warned that “fewer than 100 seats is a danger.” Convinced of a crushing defeat, Hwang Kyo-ahn repeatedly apologized to the public, bowing deeply at Jong-ro. Ultimately, Hwang Kyo-ahn confirmed his party’s defeat during the vote counting and resigned from his position as party leader, disappearing from the public eye.
Contrary to the predictions of many analysts, including myself, who foresaw a major defeat for the conservative opposition party in the general election, conservative YouTubers like Kang Yong-seok from the channel “Garo-Sero Research Institute” guaranteed a resounding victory for the opposition with more than 180 seats. Conservative voters hoping for a win for the opposition party donated large sums to these deceitful propaganda YouTubers.
By deceiving conservative voters and collecting donations, these YouTubers had no choice but to continue with their second wave of propaganda about election fraud. Naturally, Kang Yong-seok, who had guaranteed the opposition’s victory most enthusiastically, took the lead.
They came up with the false propaganda phrase about how the probability of the voting ratio between the inside and outside of Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon was 63 to 36, similar to the ratio measured during early voting, and was “the same as the probability of the moon colliding with the Earth.” In response, Professor Lee Kyung-jeon from Kyung Hee University’s Business School refuted this, stating “it is natural for the ratio to converge similarly since there is no significant difference in voter tendencies between the inside and outside of the same constituency.”
In turn, they stopped using the 63:36 argument and began making indiscriminate accusations about potential Chinese hacker operations and issues with the National Election Commission’s ballots, claiming they could attack anything and everything.
Logically, this makes no sense as Korean elections are not online. Ballots are cast on paper, and with the help of a ballot sorting machine, the ballots are manually verified and opened with the confirmation stamps of party observers.
Recently, even President Yoon Suk-yeol raised suspicions about hacking from China and North Korea. However, if that were the case, simply opening the ballot boxes stored by the National Election Commission and conducting a recount would immediately reveal any electronic manipulation, as the results of the physical ballots would not align with any tampered electronic vote counts. Yet, election fraud scammers continue to claim both electronic manipulation and ballot manipulation at the same time. If the ballots were manipulated, there would be no need to manipulate the electronic vote count as well.
Furthermore, Min Kyung-wook and his lawyer, Kang Yong-seok, have continuously claimed that electronic voting machine programming was tampered by Chinese hackers. The Supreme Court accepted their request for an expert examination, ordering the National Election Commission to submit the electronic voting machines and requiring Kang Yong-seok and others to pay for the examination fees. However, they never paid the fees, effectively blocking the examination. The Supreme Court’s ruling pointed out, “The plaintiffs did not separately request evidence for the verification of the voting machine's operational principles or functions.”
In other words, they stirred up the issue of electronic vote tampering to conservative voters through YouTubers, only to avoid the expert examination that the Supreme Court had authorized. This led Jeong Ham-cheol, representative of the North West Youth Group, to file a fraud complaint against them, stating that “Kang Yong-seok, Min Kyung-wook, and others knowingly incited election fraud for the purpose of raising donations.”
Kang Yong-seok and Kim Se-eui, from the “Garoseo Research Institute” channel, raised over 6 billion KRW in donations by claiming that they would recount votes in over 100 constituencies, charging 60 million KRW per district. However, the National Election Commission stated that only the candidates, not third parties, could initiate recount lawsuits, so they did not properly carry out recount lawsuits in constituencies other than Min Kyung-wook’s. They collected tens of billions of KRW in donations but did not take proper legal action and have yet to return the donations. Despite warnings from the National Election Commission, Kang Yong-seok and Kim Se-eui publicly revealed that they had supported Min Kyung-wook with tens of millions of KRW, eventually leading to an investigation for violating the Political Fund Act.
In the conservative camp, figures such as Jeong Gyu-jae, former chief editor of The Korea Economic Daily, Jo Gap-je, former chief editor of Monthly Chosun, Han Min-ho, former director of the Ministry of Culture, and Jeong Ham-cheol, representative of the North West Youth Group, have consistently demanded public debates with election fraud promoters like Kang Yong-seok, Min Kyung-wook, Hwang Kyo-ahn, and Park Ju-hyun. However, the scammers have refused to participate in a single debate for over five years. Notably, Jeong Ham-cheol even went to meet Hwang Kyo-ahn to offer the truth about the election fraud but was turned away. Considering that Hwang Kyo-ahn had served as a former prime minister and that Jeong Ham-cheol had been involved in conservative movements for over 20 years, it would be common sense to at least listen when someone offers to explain the truth.
Byun Hee-jae, too, has repeatedly proposed public debates with them, but they have been quick to flee every time. These individuals have been spreading indiscriminate falsehoods about election fraud, likely without being certain themselves, in order to raise donations and other benefits.
On the other hand, the Democratic Party resolved the false election fraud propaganda spread by Kim Ou-joon through an unlimited, final debate at the party level. In contrast, Lee Jun-seok, the then leader of the conservative opposition party, was oddly evasive about correcting the election fraud hoax, despite numerous requests for a public debate from Byun Hee-jae and others.
On January 3rd, Jeong Gyu-jae, Han Min-ho, and others will hold a 5-hour debate on election fraud. They have, of course, invited Kang Yong-seok, Hwang Kyo-ahn, and other promoters of election fraud to the event. However, it is likely that they will flee again.
At the very least, the People Power Party should create an unlimited debate platform at the party level, just like the Democratic Party did. The Democratic Party corrected Kim Ou-joon’s election fraud hoax in a single night. If the supporters of the People Power Party are not less intelligent than those of the Democratic Party, why are they dragging their feet over an issue that could be solved in a day?
