A former senior official at South Korea’s National Election Commission (NEC) used a secret mobile phone registered under the commission’s name to contact politicians while in office, an audit has found. The phone was created during Kim Se-hwan’s tenure as NEC secretary-general, just before the country’s 2022 presidential and local elections.
Kim continued using the phone for an additional year and eight months after leaving office. By the time the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) seized the device, it had been factory-reset, erasing all data and making forensic recovery impossible. This means there is no way to verify whom Kim spoke with or when, the audit agency noted.
Political neutrality and independence are the foundation of the NEC’s role. The fact that a high-ranking election official used a separate phone specifically to communicate with politicians raises serious concerns.
The situation appears even more troubling given that the device was wiped clean, making it impossible to confirm whether Kim had engaged in any inappropriate activity or compromised the commission’s fairness.
The NEC is already under intense scrutiny over a series of scandals, including corruption in hiring, poor cybersecurity, and mismanagement of elections. A recent audit revealed that over the past decade, all 291 of the commission’s experienced-hire recruitments involved at least one rule violation, with a total of 878 infractions. Which means Not a single hiring process was conducted without breaking regulations.
Whistleblower complaints about hiring irregularities were dismissed with absurd justifications like, ‘We are like a family business’ and ‘Hiring relatives is our tradition.’ It’s hard to believe such excuses were even made.
The commission also failed to detect cyberattacks from North Korea and came under fire for mishandling ballots during the presidential election, at one point transporting them in plastic baskets. It is hard to imagine any other taxpayer-funded institution operating this way.
With its neutrality now in question and oversight mechanisms proving inadequate, the NEC cannot be left unchecked. The need for sweeping reforms is undeniable. A national debate is likely needed to establish effective measures for public oversight, with options such as appointing a special inspector for the commission or launching a parliamentary probe to expose further corruption.
