Kim Jae-seop of the People Power Party, who has emerged as a "Chong Won-o sniper," said that Chong Won-o, the Democratic Party of Korea's preliminary candidate for Seoul mayor, went on an overseas business trip to Cancun, Mexico, with a female staffer when he was Seongdong District chief. Kim said, "In the deliberation resolution for the official overseas trip that I received from a whistleblower, the sex of the staffer in question was falsified as 'Namsung.'"
On the 31st at the National Assembly, Kim held a press conference and said, "Candidate Chong went on an overseas official trip with a female staffer while serving as district chief," adding, "The problem is that in the official trip documents, the staffer was changed to 'Namsung.'"
Kim said, "When we requested the materials, the Seongdong District Office redacted the staffer's sex," adding, "After the overseas trip, the female staffer was rehired at the Seongdong District Office to a higher grade position. It was an exceptional and unusual personnel move."
In fact, in the deliberation resolution for the official overseas trip that Kim disclosed that day, the sex of the Seongdong District employee who went on the trip with Candidate Chong is recorded as male. Kim said, "Unless they wanted to hide the fact that he traveled overseas with a female staffer, or unless they falsified an official document, what reason would there be to cover only the sex?" adding, "The official overseas trip report contains no specific description of the activities for the two nights and three days in Cancun, nor any supporting documentation."
Kim said, "The female staffer who traveled with District Chief Chong Won-o was later rehired, moving from term-based grade D to grade A," adding, "We urge a responsible explanation for why a single female staffer was singled out to accompany him to a representative resort destination, and how, on paper, that woman's sex was changed to Namsung."
Chong's camp strongly pushed back, calling it groundless. In a press release, Chong's side said of the Mexico trip that Kim took issue with, "It was a legitimate official duty carried out together by an 11-member Korean delegation that included then-lawmaker Kim Du-kwan, former Minister of Gender Equality and Family Lee Jung-ok, former Democratic Party Supreme Council member Lee Dong-hak, three local council members, and local government officials," adding, "The staffer who accompanied District Chief Chong Won-o at the time was not only the person in charge of the relevant work but also handled all practical affairs for the delegation."
Chong's side said, "Taking issue simply because she is a female public official is a ruthless negative attack that goes beyond basic human decency," explaining, "The mistake about sex in the official overseas trip deliberation resolution was a simple error by the district office."
Chong's side said, "All 11 members of the Korean delegation carried out the entire Mexico schedule together, and after concluding the schedule in Merida, they chose Cancun as a transit point because it had many flight options for the next leg," adding, "We plan to hold them properly accountable for baseless negative attacks."
Lee Dong-hak, a former Democratic Party Supreme Council member who accompanied the trip, also posted on Facebook, saying, "(The trip at the time) was a grueling schedule in which several local council members and a few university professors, including former lawmaker Kim Du-kwan, participated together and gave multiple presentations in several sessions," adding, "Attacking as if he went on a trip to a Mexican resort alone with a female staffer is flatly wrong and unfair."