It was revealed that Kim Keon-hee, the wife of President Yoon Suk-yeol, exchanged 11 calls and messages with former People Power Party lawmaker Kim Young-sun just before the April 10 election last year, according to a report by the prosecution on the investigation of Myung Tae-kyun.
On the 20th, News Tapa reported that the Changwon District Prosecutor's Office released a report titled "Confirmation of Myung Tae-kyun's Involvement in the 22nd National Assembly Election Candidate Selection" which was prepared on November 10 last year. Myung was arrested and indicted on December 3 last year on charges of violating the Political Fund Act, among others.
According to the report, on February 18 last year at around 3:30 p.m., Myung sent a message via Telegram to Mrs. Kim, stating that "former lawmaker Kim has no ties to Gimhae and would have no way to win if he participates in the primary," requesting a single candidate nomination. Mrs. Kim reportedly replied, "It would be nice to get a single candidate nomination, but the basic strategy is a primary."
Then, Myung reportedly sent a message to Mrs. Kim saying, "This is not right," and added, "I helped the President during the last election until I was exhausted. I cannot tell former lawmaker Kim to run in the primary. Instead, please tell him."
About an hour later, around 5 p.m., Mrs. Kim reportedly called former lawmaker Kim and spoke for 6 seconds and 11 minutes and 9 seconds, according to the prosecution's report. She then reportedly called him again around 8:24 p.m. and spoke for 1 minute and 38 seconds.
The former lawmaker's side distributed a press release that night, announcing he would give up his candidacy in the current district of Changwon Uichang and run in Gimhae Gap.
According to the prosecution, Mrs. Kim also called former lawmaker Kim on the 20th, two days later, and they spoke for 13 minutes and 2 seconds.
The prosecution suspects that Myung hurriedly moved to the Gimhae Gap constituency when he anticipated that former lawmaker Kim would not receive the nomination for the Changwon Uichang electoral district and attempted to intervene in the nominations through Mrs. Kim.