Prime Minister candidate Kim Min-seok said on the 17th, “I repaid the penalty of 200 million won due to the failure to issue a receipt for the corporate donation, which I did not even request from the central party, by using the security deposit at that time.”
Candidate Kim noted through Facebook that regarding the penalty imposed for violating the Political Fund Act, “The economic pain that began with targeted prosecution was beyond imagination.”
He revealed that to resolve the pressure of the penalty while in a state of credit default, he raised private debt of 10 million won from several people, stating, “I am still tearfully grateful to those who lent me a million won out of human compassion when I had no political future at that time.”
Candidate Kim said regarding the investigation and ruling related to the Political Fund Act at the time, “The targeted prosecution did not end with just one event,” and added, “The second targeted prosecution included the pressure of suffocating gift tax in addition to the penalty.”
He stated, “The gift tax is a double punishment where both a penalty and the gift tax are imposed on the same matter, and for those determined not to pay, there is no burden. For someone like me, who feels unjust but decides to pay, the pressure of the gift tax severely tightens the breathing before the penalty.”
He continued, “In an effort to avoid the harsh pressure of an average increase of 1.4 million won in taxes every month, I attempted to use my mother's house as collateral for partial payment, but the tax authority's response was cold,” adding, “I was struggling under the pressure of a gift tax exceeding the first notice amount of over 120 million won, having to resolve the tax pressure through private debts with acquaintances.”
Candidate Kim said, “Around July 2017, I thought I couldn’t live like this any longer under the rising pressure, so I decided to borrow 10 million won at once from several people as the best method without any issues,” explaining, “There was no other method given my credit status. The reason I incurred the same amount of debt from several people simultaneously on the same date in April 2018.”
He added, “It is very natural that the forms of the loan agreements are the same,” stating, “I planned to pay only the interest to these individuals first and repay the principal after settling the penalty.”
He said, “After immense hardship, I was able to pay off nearly 1 billion won in penalties and additional gift tax,” adding, “Recently, I could finally clear my private debts by incurring a bank loan.”
Regarding the criticism from opposition lawmakers regarding his expenditures being greater than his income and the nearly 200 million won he donated to the church over the past five years, Candidate Kim stated, “I believe that what I have survived so far is due to the grace of God and the people,” and added, “Both my wife and I have lived and donated with that mindset. I believe there is no reason to be criticized for such things.”
Candidate Kim also expressed his feelings of powerlessness and shame as a man regarding the People Power Party’s request to summon his divorced ex-wife and his current wife as witnesses at the hearing, saying, “My wife’s eyes, bursting with blood vessels from the pain of feeling utterly stripped, and facing the coldness of bringing in the mother of the children who are taking care of their education into the hearing, makes me feel extremely powerless and embarrassed.”
Nonetheless, he stated, “I do not care whether they call the representative of the corporations that delivered election support funds for the 2002 Seoul mayoral election at the request of the central party or the prosecutors who targeted me,” adding, “I too would like to hear their stories.”