Overview
- South Korea’s special counsel indicted Mayor Oh, former vice mayor Kang Cheol-won and supporter Kim Han-jung without detention on suspected violations of the Political Funds Act.
- Investigators say Kim paid 33 million won in five installments for 10 unpublished opinion polls conducted in January and February 2021 by pollster Myung Tae-kyun.
- Prosecutors allege Kang coordinated the surveys with Myung by exchanging questionnaires and discussing poll procedures on Oh’s behalf.
- Oh denies commissioning or receiving the surveys and calls the case politically driven, while the special counsel says it will maintain the indictment.
- Myung is under a separate probe for poll manipulation and claims multiple meetings with Oh, which the mayor disputes; a qualifying conviction could bar Oh from public office for years.