Reform Party Secretary-General Lee Gi-in wrote on Facebook on the 3rd that "Presidential Office (Cheong Wa Dae) First Executive Office Chief Kim Hyun-ji said to me at the New Year's gathering on the 2nd, 'You should know what you're talking about,' and put me down."
Secretary-General Lee entered politics in 2013 as a staffer for the Saenuri Party (now People Power Party) and served as a Seongnam City council member from 2014 to 2022 and a Gyeonggi Province council member from 2022 to 2024. In 2023, Lee joined the Reform Party.
In a Facebook post on the 3rd, Secretary-General Lee said, "At the New Year's gathering at the state guesthouse of the Presidential Office (Cheong Wa Dae) on the 2nd, I attended in my capacity as Reform Party secretary-general and, while exchanging greetings, I walked directly over to Executive Office Chief Kim Hyun-ji at the table across from me and offered a greeting."
Kim then reportedly said to Lee, "We haven't met before, have we?" In response, Secretary-General Lee wrote, "It must have been a blatant aversion toward me, who has been raising suspicions on several broadcasts."
Secretary-General Lee said, "As I turned away after a brief greeting, I heard someone mumble behind my back, 'Uh, that….'" Lee continued, "When I went back, Kim, without turning anything but her head from her seat, suddenly put me down by saying, 'You should know what you're talking about,' loudly enough for the surrounding guests to hear."
Secretary-General Lee has claimed on broadcasts and on Facebook that Kim has long worked with President Lee Jae-myung and is an unofficial power broker in this administration. In Oct. last year, Lee posted on Facebook a video known as the "2004 Seongnam City Council main chamber intrusion incident."
The video showed President Lee Jae-myung, then a civic activist pushing the "Seongnam City Hospital establishment campaign," and Executive Office Chief Kim Hyun-ji. Secretary-General Lee also wrote, "When Lee Jae-myung steps forward, Kim Hyun-ji follows; when Kim Hyun-ji is blocked, Lee Jae-myung swings a notebook, gets into scuffles, and hurls vile insults at civil servants."