SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol denied wrongdoing on Thursday in a burgeoning influence-peddling scandal involving him and his wife that is severely hurting his approval ratings and providing political munition to his rivals. The political firestorm coincides with South Korea facing a slew of critical foreign policy issues, such as Donald Trump ’s election win to become the next president of the United States and North Korea ’s reported entry into the Russia-Ukraine war . The scandal centers around allegations that Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee exerted inappropriate influence on the conservative governing People Power Party to pick a certain candidate to run for a parliamentary by-election in 2022 at the request of Myung Tae-kyun, an election broker and founder of a polling agency who conducted free opinion surveys for Yoon before he became president.
For weeks, the scandal has been making headlines in South Korea as Myung’s leaked phone conversations show he boasted of his influence over the presidential couple and other top governing party officials. Asked about his ties with Myung during a news conference Thursday, Yoon said, “I didn’t do anything inappropriate and have nothing to hide regarding Myung Tae-kyun.” Yoon said he has never meddled in any candidate nomination process at the PPP, and had never asked Myung to carry out surveys for him, though he acknowledged that Myung gave him some sort of help during his presidential pr.
