The controversy over the “Yoon Seok-youl X-files” between ruling and opposition politicians is turning out to be more and more interesting. Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl and the People Power Party argued that the X-files was a political maneuver and an illegal investigation by the ruling party. This angered the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, which cited the opposition including independent lawmaker Hong Joon-pyo as the source of the problem. At the same time, the ruling party mentioned the verification of Yoon Seok-youl as a presidential candidate and heightened its attacks. The People Power Party fought back accusing the ruling party of engaging in “an outdated politics of propaganda,” and now the nation’s political circle is bubbling with the X-file controversy.

Democratic Party leader Song Young-gil appeared on TBS radio on June 23 and asked, “Shouldn’t it (verification of a candidate) be more extensive than the investigation of the wife and family of former Minister Cho Kuk (conducted by Yoon)?” The ruling party leader also said, “The verification of the ‘president’s spouse,’ who will have a legal status and receive state support, is no less important than that of the president.” Kang Byung-won, a member of the Democratic Party’s Supreme Council also said in a council meeting, “Yoon asserted that he had never caused anyone to suffer a penny’s worth of damages, but new allegations surrounding his mother-in-law are popping up shaming those words.” He further attacked, “A strong presidential candidate should be able to sufficiently explain and clarify any allegation to the people.”

Song, who in a past interview said that he was collecting “files” on Yoon, denied his words saying, “We don’t have any ‘X-files’” on this day’s show. He said, “I only meant that we were collecting information for verification,” and added, “We are trying our best to sort the information.” Meanwhile, Song pointed his finger at independent lawmaker Hong Joon-pyo, who is getting ready to return to the People Power Party, and said, “Hong probably knows the most. Hong was a senior prosecutor, and he knows everything that Yoon did last summer.”

The People Power Party fought back attacking the ruling party of a “conspiracy theory” and a “politics of propaganda.” The party’s leader Lee Jun-seok met with reporters during his schedule in Jeju this day and said, “We don’t understand why the leader of a political party is talking about something close to a conspiracy theory. We hope that he will refrain from making irresponsible arguments.” Spokesperson Hwangbo Seung-hee released a comment and said, “The leader of the ruling party is mentioning conjectures like they are fact and misleading the public,” and criticized, “It is an outdated politics of propaganda.” Kim Jae-won, a member of the conservative opposition party’s Supreme Council said in an interview with TBS, “Song is the one who made up the entire thing (files) and circulated it.”

Lawmaker Hong Joon-pyo, whom Song cited as the source of the X-files, denied the allegation on social media writing, “I have never seen the ‘Yoon Seok-youl X-files’ and I know nothing about it.” At the same time, he pointed the knife at Yoon saying, “It is not the proper attitude of a person who always led investigations into civilians to try and avoid verification by claiming it is an illegal investigation.” Hong denied the allegation raised against him and instead launched an attack on Yoon, his competition in the race for president. Hong’s reaction led some people to argue that Song had intended to “divide the enemy.”

Reportedly, Yoon has secured several versions of the “X-files” and is currently analyzing the details. At the same time, he is preparing to operate a team to respond to negative campaigning, while reviewing ways to respond to the “X-files.” Choi Ji-hyeon, his assistant spokesperson said over the phone this day, “We are preparing a separate team, apart from our legal support team, to respond to negative campaigns,” and added, “As soon as we are ready, we will discuss whether to respond (to the X-files) along with our guidelines.”