{"id":40894,"date":"2026-08-12T13:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T08:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=40894"},"modified":"2026-08-12T13:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T08:26:11","slug":"south-korean-parties-clash-over-june-election-recount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=40894","title":{"rendered":"South Korean parties clash over June election recount"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/ph\/st\/th\/6341786491158\/2026\/i\/17864915834944\/v1.5\/South-Korean-parties-clash-over-June-election-recount.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers attend the third hearing of a National Assembly committee investigating ballot shortages and other election-management problems Monday in Seoul. Photo by Asia Today&#13;\n                                            <\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><span class=\"story_dl\">Aug. 11 (Asia Today) &#8212;<\/span> South Korea&#8217;s ruling and opposition parties remained divided Tuesday over the timing of a recount from the June 3 local elections, with the Democratic Party seeking to proceed next Tuesday and the People Power Party calling for the process to wait until a special counsel investigation begins.<\/p>\n<p>A National Assembly special committee investigating ballot shortages and other election-management problems has tentatively scheduled a recount of ballots from a polling area in Seoul&#8217;s Songpa district for Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n<p>The Democratic Party argues that the recount should proceed as scheduled because the committee&#8217;s operating period was extended specifically to allow the review to take place.<\/p>\n<p>Han Byung-do, acting Democratic Party leader and floor leader, accused the People Power Party of repeatedly changing its conditions for allowing the recount.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The People Power Party is effectively trying to delay even the re-examination scheduled for the 18th by saying it should be linked to the special counsel,&#8221; Han said at a floor strategy meeting.\n<\/p>\n<p>He said the opposition had first said the recount could take place once a special counsel bill was agreed upon, then said it should wait until a special counsel was appointed and was now seeking additional coordination over the schedule.<\/p>\n<p>Han accused the opposition of using the controversy for political purposes rather than focusing on correcting problems at the National Election Commission and preventing a recurrence.<\/p>\n<p>The People Power Party argues that conducting the parliamentary investigation and the special counsel investigation separately could create confusion over preserving ballots and other evidence.<\/p>\n<p>It wants the recount postponed until the special counsel investigation begins.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, disagreements have emerged within the People Power Party over allegations that incorrect voter turnout figures were entered into election systems.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun, chairman of the parliamentary investigative committee, said incorrect or false entry of voter totals and poor computer management should not automatically be treated as evidence that vote totals were manipulated.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The fact that voter numbers were falsely or incorrectly entered or that there was poor computer management is completely different from the claim that vote totals for a particular candidate were changed to overturn an election result,&#8221; Yoon wrote on social media.\n<\/p>\n<p>He said election-management failures should be punished firmly but cautioned against conclusions that could undermine public confidence in the entire electoral system without sufficient evidence.<\/p>\n<p>Yoon made a similar argument during the committee&#8217;s third hearing Monday, saying it was a &#8220;logical leap&#8221; to conclude that manipulating voter numbers necessarily meant candidate vote totals had also been manipulated.<\/p>\n<p>People Power Party lawmakers Kim Eun-hye and Joo Jin-woo strongly objected to Yoon&#8217;s remarks, bringing the internal disagreement into public view.<\/p>\n<p>Senior lawmaker Na Kyung-won also criticized Yoon&#8217;s position during a radio interview Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Na called his comments an abandonment of his responsibility as committee chairman.<\/p>\n<p>She said investigators should leave open all possibilities, examine the evidence and then explain to the public whether manipulation occurred rather than ruling out a possibility in advance.<\/p>\n<p>The dispute leaves the planned Tuesday recount uncertain as lawmakers debate whether the parliamentary review should proceed independently or be coordinated with the special counsel.<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8212; Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>\u00a9 Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Original Korean report: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.asiatoday.co.kr\/kn\/view.php?key=20260811010003677\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.asiatoday.co.kr\/kn\/view.php?key=20260811010003677<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lawmakers attend the third hearing of a National Assembly committee investigating ballot shortages and other election-management problems Monday in Seoul. Photo by Asia Today&#13; Aug. 11 (Asia Today) &#8212; South Korea&#8217;s ruling and opposition parties remained divided Tuesday over the timing of a recount from the June 3 local elections, with the Democratic Party seeking&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/sv\/ph\/og\/i\/6341786491158\/2026\/1\/17864915834944\/v1.5\/South-Korean-parties-clash-over-June-election-recount.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}