Kim Jae-sup Alleges Jeong Won-o Demanded Overnight Stay, Threatened Owner, Assaulted Police 31 Years Ago

Rep. Kim Jae-sup of the People Power Party on the 13th raised suspicions that Democratic Party Seoul mayoral candidate Jeong Won-o demanded an overnight stay with a female employee at an entertainment venue 31 years ago, threatened the owner, and assaulted a responding police officer, revealing specific details of the alleged incident. Citing the released minutes, Rep. Kim claimed that candidate Jeong, around 11 p.m. on October 11, 1995, at a cafe in Sinjeong 5-dong, Yangcheon-gu, demanded an overnight stay with a female employee from the owner after drinking alcohol.

When the owner refused, he allegedly threatened them, and during the ensuing argument, assaulted a customer at an adjacent table, causing injuries requiring two weeks of treatment. He further claimed that two police officers who responded to the report were also assaulted, with Officer Hong sustaining injuries to his chest and shoulder requiring two weeks of treatment, and Officer Shim suffering a head injury requiring 10 days of treatment, mentioning charges of obstruction of justice against candidate Jeong.

In response, candidate Jeong Won-o's campaign camp countered Kim's claims as "one-sided assertions that are not true," releasing court rulings and media articles detailing the incident. Jeong's side stated that the content released by Rep. Kim only contained the assertions of the then-Democratic Liberal Party, and cited media reports published immediately after the incident to explain that an assault on the victim did occur "during an argument over punishment issues related to the June 27 election and May 18 incident."