Lee Jun-seok on child sex-buying councilman: 'No party can know if a suspect hides it'

Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok said he would not turn the tables on the People Power Party over the expulsion of Cheongju city councilman Choi Young-jung, who faces charges of buying sex from a minor, declining to fire back with the same "when did you know?" attacks the PPP had leveled at him.

Lee himself has been on the defensive over questions about when he learned that Jeong I-han, the Reform Party's Busan mayoral candidate, had allegedly staged a fake assault on himself.

Speaking at a Reform Party supreme council meeting Thursday, Lee said Choi had been summoned by police in May — during the height of campaigning for the June 3 local elections — and questioned over the child sex-buying allegations. "At that session, he admitted to having sexual relations but claimed he believed the victim was an adult, then calmly returned to the campaign trail, shook hands with voters and won," Lee said.

Lee said the Reform Party accepts the North Chungcheong Province chapter of the PPP's explanation that it had no knowledge of the matter during the candidate vetting process. "If investigative agencies do not notify a party of a suspect's alleged crimes, and the candidate himself is determined to conceal them, no party can monitor an ongoing investigation," he said.

He added that the PPP almost certainly learned of the case through the search and seizure of Choi's office. "Instead of throwing the question 'when did you know?' back at the PPP, I will ask: 'What can we do to make sure parties find out?'" he said. "There are no further steps a party can take after expulsion. I will not demand additional action from the PPP."

Lee proposed a system under which candidates for public office booked on charges — including child sex crimes — would have the status of their investigation disclosed to the nominating party from the point of preliminary candidate registration onward.

The PPP voted to expel Choi on Wednesday over the sex-buying charges, for which he is under police investigation.

According to police, Choi is accused of having sexual relations with a middle school student in a vehicle and at a motel on three occasions between October 2024 and last May, and of demanding that the victim send him nude photographs — charges that include quasi-rape of a minor and production of sexual exploitation material under the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth from Sexual Abuse.

Police believe Choi met the middle school student through a chat app and solicited sex by offering money or promising to buy the victim cigarettes.

The victim's parents filed a complaint with police in the Daejeon area in late February, and about a month later the Cheongju Cheongwon Police Station, which took over the case, summoned Choi to appear — but he repeatedly delayed, citing the need to retain a lawyer. When Choi finally appeared before police in mid-May, he did not disclose that he was running in the local elections and told investigators he worked as a company employee. He admitted to having sexual relations with the victim but denied the charges, saying he did not know the victim was a minor.

Choi won a seat on the Chungju City Council as a PPP-backed candidate in the June 3 local elections. The case became public after police conducted searches and seizures at his council office, constituency office and residence when he refused to hand over his mobile phone.