Joo Jin-woo: “Kim Hye-kyung booked golf on the day of the Daegu accident ... Is this a case of severe golf addiction?”

[Financial News] People Power Party lawmaker Joo Jin-woo criticized Kim Hye-kyung, saying on the 27th, “On October 10, the day a commercial building’s ceiling collapsed in Daegu, Lee Jae Myung played golf with his family while Kim Hye-kyung booked her next round,” and asking, “Are the two spouses severely addicted to golf?” He urged Special Inspector Choi Gil-soo to investigate the allegation of “emperor golf” involving Mrs. Kim as his first case.
Joo held a press conference that day at the National Assembly Communication Building and said, “Immediately disclose when (Mrs. Kim) played golf, with whom, and using what money.”
Earlier, on the 26th, Joo released a video claiming that Mrs. Kim had played golf with a famous professional golfer at Taereung Country Club on the 20th, setting off a stir in political circles. Joo says the golf booking was made on the 10th. That was the day a commercial building’s ceiling collapsed in Daegu.
Joo said, “On that very day of the Daegu ceiling-collapse accident, when Lee Jae Myung admitted that he had played family golf and received briefings while doing so, Kim Hye-kyung booked golf for October 20 at 2:01:59 p.m. while playing that family round. The Blue House acknowledged that Lee learned at the golf course that the accident had occurred and received briefings while playing golf; at that very moment, Kim Hye-kyung booked her next round.”
He went on to ask, “Are the two spouses really addicted to golf? They don’t care whether members of the public get hurt, and they book their next golf outing while playing—do they have no regard for the public?”
Joo raised suspicions that President Lee had played golf at least 25 times on weekends and holiday periods alone since taking office, based on an exhaustive review of booking records at Taereung Country Club. He said the president’s golf bookings followed a particular pattern: “He starts with the first tee time of the second session, with the slots ahead left open, and leaves four groups open behind.” He added, “An exhaustive review of bookings following this pattern, conducted right after President Lee took office, found 25 bookings on weekends and holidays alone,” and asked, “Did he go abroad on state visits to film food-eating videos, then go around playing golf when he was in Korea?”
Joo also urged the Blue House and the Democratic Party to “apologize on their knees before the public for Kim Hye-kyung booking emperor golf and taking lessons even as the public was suffering over the accident, and to submit to a special prosecutor’s investigation.”
The People Power Party leadership also backed Joo. Floor Leader Chung Jeom-sik said at a meeting on parliamentary audit strategy at the National Assembly on the 27th, “The crux of the matter is that the president’s family, not the president, privately used the Taereung Country Club golf course, a military facility,” adding, “The Blue House only needs to explain whether Mrs. Kim played golf.”
The Democratic Party, for its part, said Joo was spreading false information and should apologize to Lydia Ko, whom he had identified as the famous professional golfer, and to the public. Democratic Party floor spokesperson Jun Eun-su said, “At a parliamentary audit hearing, Joo loudly claimed that Mrs. Kim had received ‘emperor lessons’ worth tens of millions of won from Lydia Ko. But Lydia Ko made clear that she had absolutely nothing to do with it and had attended an official event for her sponsor that day, and even announced she would take legal action. Using parliamentary immunity as a shield to casually drag an innocent person’s name into the matter is not a lawmaker’s legislative work; it is nothing but reckless exposé politics based on ‘say it, and if it’s not true, so what?’”
Jun countered, “(Joo) should disclose in full who he heard these false claims from and what basis he had for accepting them,” adding, “The People Power Party, too, cannot escape responsibility for jumping on the bandwagon of these false allegations.”

[email protected] Lee Hae-ram Reporter