Lee Chan-jin, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, listens to commissioner questions during the comprehensive audit by the National Policy Committee held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 27th. /Courtesy of Yonhap News

Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Chan-jin dismissed the possibility of entering politics in the future. He also said that if there is a department inside the Financial Supervisory Service that reports on politics, he will disband it.

On Oct. 27 at a comprehensive audit by the National Policy Committee of the National Assembly, in response to a question from Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Park Beom-kye asking, "Do you have any intention of going into politics," Lee said, "Not at all."

When Park pointed out that "during former Governor Lee Bok-hyeon's tenure, the financial situation analysis team acted as political consultants," Lee said, "If I receive a similar report, I will disband the analysis team in question."

Park pointed out that on the day, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) financial situation analysis team prepared an internal report to stage-manage the image of former Governor Lee at external events. In the report, which Park disclosed under the title "Fashion is also politics. Messages on T-shirts," it said, "People Power Party emergency committee chair Han Dong-hoon and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon are actively using T-shirt slogans to deliver political messages and draw attention," and, "When the governor attends external events, it is possible to use methods that visually deliver messages through T-shirt slogans, etc." It was also confirmed that there were separate reports summarizing news articles in which former Governor Lee's fashion, such as "Lee Bok-hyeon, born in 1972, goes to work in chinos," became a hot topic.

Lee said, "I don't know why they do things like that. There is nothing like that at all in what I receive weekly now," adding, "I will report to lawmakers on institutional improvements to prevent any recurrence in the future and, if necessary, include personnel sanctions."

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