EXCLUSIVE: Wife Accompanied on Every Overseas Trip... Kept 'Undisclosed' in External Reports

[Anchor]

We continue with an exclusive report regarding the National Election Commission (NEC). It has been revealed that former NEC Chairperson Roh Tae-ak, who resigned over the ballot paper shortage incident, accompanied his spouse on all three of his overseas business trips during his tenure. The spouse's expenses, including airfare and accommodation, were also covered by public funds. However, the NEC concealed this fact in its publicly released reports.

Reporter Go Jeong-hyeon has this exclusive report.

[Reporter]

In November last year, seven months before the June 3 local elections, then-NEC Chairperson Roh Tae-ak and three staff members—four people in total—went on an eight-night, ten-day overseas business trip to Denmark and Sweden, according to a report published by the NEC on its website.

The purpose of the trip was to discuss the development direction of the election system, among other topics.

However, in photos of a visit to the South Korean Embassy in Denmark and a dinner at the official residence, a woman is seen standing next to then-Chairperson Roh.

Who is she?

This is a confidential business trip plan obtained by SBS.

In the remarks column of the traveler list next to then-Chairperson Roh's name, it is written "accompanied by spouse."

While the report publicly released by the NEC stated that there were four travelers, it was confirmed that there were actually five, including then-Chairperson Roh's wife.

SBS also checked the details of the trip's budget, which cost 90.53 million won of public funds.

Business class airfare was billed for two people, and accommodation expenses were settled for five people instead of four.

What about the overseas trip in November 2024, when former Chairperson Roh visited Germany and Estonia?

It cost 71.9 million won, and it was also "accompanied by spouse."

Once again, the NEC did not disclose this fact in the travel report released to the public.

It was confirmed that former Chairperson Roh, who was also a Supreme Court justice, went on three overseas business trips during his four-year tenure as NEC chairperson, and all of them were accompanied by his spouse.

[Yang Bu-nam / Democratic Party Lawmaker: While neglecting his primary duty of election management, taking his spouse on business trips under the pretext of 'exchanges with overseas institutions' is a clear junket privilege and a waste of taxpayers' money.]

The report on the Denmark-Sweden trip shows that the local officials former Chairperson Roh met were mostly working-level staff, such as a director at Copenhagen City Hall in Denmark and a team leader at the Swedish Election Authority.

Critics point out that this does not match the status of the country's fifth-highest official in the state protocol hierarchy.

The schedule consisted of only one or two events per day, and on one day, the only official activity was laying a wreath at a Korean War memorial.

Regarding the spouse-accompanied trips, the NEC stated, "It was necessary to consider the protocol corresponding to the status and role of the head of a constitutional institution, so the spouse's budget was planned from the budgeting stage." It added, "We followed custom, but in the future, we will operate in a way that meets public expectations."

The commission explained that the reason this was not recorded in the publicly released reports was because the spouse is not a public official.

SBS attempted to contact former Chairperson Roh for his explanation, but was unable to reach him.

(Reported by Kim Han-gyeol | Video by Shin Se-eun | Graphics by Choi Jin-hoe)

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[Anchor]

Let's discuss this in more detail with Reporter Go Jeong-hyeon, who covered this story.

Q. Why was the spouse's accompaniment hidden?

[Reporter Go Jeong-hyeon: Yes, let me explain this first. This is the official business trip report that anyone can view. As you can see, the list of travelers states that four people, including former Chairperson Roh Tae-ak and NEC staff, went on the trip. On the other hand, this is a confidential document—the trip plan—and next to former Chairperson Roh's name, it says "accompanied by spouse." When we asked the NEC why they hid the fact that he was accompanied by his spouse, they excused it by saying that because the spouse is not an active public official, it was deemed inappropriate to include her in public documents, so she was left out. It sounded like they went ahead with it even though they knew the public would find it inappropriate.]

Q. But she didn't attend the actual "election-related schedules"?

[Reporter Go Jeong-hyeon: Anyone from the first lady to even the spouses of ordinary public officials can travel abroad together if there is a clear official purpose. Covering the expenses with the state budget is also fully possible. However, according to the travel records, former Chairperson Roh's wife did not attend any schedules related to the election system. Furthermore, the NEC admitted that no overseas institution had invited former Chairperson Roh's wife. This is why criticisms are being raised that these were junket trips.]

Q. What about business trips of other staff members?

[Reporter Go Jeong-hyeon: A total of 461 NEC employees have gone on 107 overseas business trips from 2022 to this year, costing 2.4 billion won of the state budget [1.1.6]. There were also cases where resort destinations like the Maldives and Kota Kinabalu were included as trip destinations under the pretext of learning about election systems, which fueled criticism that they were going on vacations using taxpayers' money. Of course, if an overseas trip is absolutely necessary, they should go. However, many point out that the recent ballot paper shortage occurred because the NEC has not faced proper external oversight. Therefore, many say that just looking at how overseas business trips are managed reveals the lax management of the NEC.]
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.