Oh Se-hoon, the mayor of Seoul, said on the 11th regarding the Seoul city's sponsorship of an event related to the conservative-leaning education group Libar School, "I instructed that a fundamental review of whether public activity subsidy programs are truly necessary be conducted."
During the 331st regular session of the Seoul City Council, Mayor Oh revealed this in response to a query from Park Soo-bin, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea.
Earlier, a controversy arose when it became known that Seoul City had provided public activity support funds to an event organized by the conservative-leaning education group Libar School. Libar School is under suspicion of manipulating public opinion in the presidential election through a comment manipulation team.
In this regard, Seoul City stated, "The Opportunity Equality Parent Alliance, a selected organization for the public activity support project, held a seminar in conjunction with Libar School," adding, "There are no facts to support subsidies for Libar School."
The mayor noted, "It was difficult for civil servants to verify the related details until the selection of the support project."
Additionally, in response to Councilor Park's question, "How can we track if far-right organizations promote projects and expand their influence through other organizations or routes?", Mayor Oh stated, "YouTube has advanced significantly, and if one puts their mind to it, the paradigm has changed to allow for the acquisition and study of information in any area."
He continued, "It seems this project has been consistently carried out on the grounds that there are supporting clauses, but since I returned as mayor, the scale of such subsidy projects has significantly diminished," adding, "This is an ongoing debate that inevitably recurs each time there is a change in mayors, so reducing the absolute amount is the solution."