Sparring between the ruling and opposition Seoul mayoral candidates is intensifying over missing rebar at the GTX-A Samsung Station integrated transfer center.
The camps of Oh Se-hoon, the People Power Party's Seoul mayoral candidate, and Chong Won-o, the Democratic Party of Korea's Seoul mayoral candidate, clashed head-on on the 18th alone, issuing statements four times and three times, respectively, over the "GTX missing rebar" controversy.
Oh's campaign issued a series of commentaries on the "GTX missing rebar incident" that day, stressing that it was nothing more than "spreading baseless rumors and inciting lies." Citing the fact that the Seoul city government held 19 on-site inspections and joint inspection meetings with Hyundai Engineering & Construction and the supervision team from December last year to March this year, Oh's side argued that "the safety issue was blocked in advance."
Oh's camp, citing a National Assembly Public Administration and Security Committee inquiry held that day, countered that "the Seoul city government notified Korea National Railway three times of the matter," adding that "it had already been shared with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport."
It added that "the Chong Won-o camp's claim is nothing but political sophistry that fails to understand the very public administration system that reduces all technical and practical judgments to a personal issue of the mayor."
Chong's side raised the issue of Oh's responsibility. Lee Jeong-heon, chief spokesperson for Chong's election committee, said, "The claim that the Seoul city government reported to Korea National Railway three times is merely a self-confession that it concealed shoddy construction involving missing rebar."
It went on to say, "What the Seoul city government says it reported to Korea National Railway is included in a monthly construction project management report and attachments totaling 400 to 500 pages," adding, "It tucked one or two pages related to the matter into part of the work log in the attachments."
Twelve Democratic Party of Korea Commissioners on the National Assembly Public Administration and Security Committee issued a statement that day, saying, "Oh Se-hoon, stop hiding behind 'attachments.'" The statement said, "Although the Seoul city government conducted multiple on-site inspections after recognizing the problem, there is no confirmed evidence that it officially discussed the structural defect issue as a separate agenda item or actively made it known."
On the 18th, Oh personally posted on Facebook and criticized the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) for "attempting an administration-led election." Oh raised his voice, saying, "MOLIT, which had already blatantly intervened in the election regarding the Garden of Thanks construction, has once again seized the sword of election maneuvering."
He added, "By that logic, every construction error that occurs in all public works in the Republic of Korea would be the personal responsibility of the president, the Minister, or the head of a metropolitan government."
In response, Chong's camp said, "Oh Se-hoon shows a perception of reality in his Facebook post that is far removed from ordinary citizens' common sense," and demanded, "Start by answering why this fact was concealed for months until authority was delegated to an acting mayor two days after duties were suspended on Apr. 27 for your mayoral run and a report was made to MOLIT."