Do we like Oh Se-hoon?
Our score: 4 out of 10. Decent on loneliness and on cutting ties with Yoon, but the repeated Pride venue refusals and his reported remark on homosexuality pull the score down.
Oh Se-hoon is a lawyer who got into politics in 2000 and became Seoul's youngest mayor at 45 in 2006. He's a political survivor: he won in 2010, then quit in 2011 after his referendum against universal free school lunches failed on low turnout. He lost a couple of National Assembly races, then came back in the 2021 by-election.
This year he squeaked back in. He beat the Democratic Party's Chong Won-o by roughly a point in June, after an exit poll had him losing, and became the city's first five-term mayor. He's widely seen as using this last term as a launchpad for a 2030 presidential run.
The big stoush is the polling case. Special prosecutors alleged that a longtime supporter paid 33 million won for ten polls on Oh's behalf to broker Myung Tae-kyun before the 2021 by-election, and Oh denied it in court. In July a Seoul court convicted him and fined him 10 million won, which would have forced him out. He said he couldn't accept it.
Then, on 23 October, the High Court acquitted him. It found Myung's testimony unreliable and the evidence short of proof beyond reasonable doubt. Oh said he was “grateful to those who believed in my innocence.” The special counsel is appealing, though legal observers quoted by the report say an overturn is relatively unlikely.
On the harm check, the record is mixed and the weak spot is LGBTQ+ people. Taipei Times reports Oh has said he “personally can’t agree with homosexuality”. His city refused organisers Seoul Plaza for Seoul Pride in 2023 and 2024, citing scheduling, while organisers said the plaza now hosts only city-led events. The festival drew over 150,000 anyway. In 2021, he said minority rights should be protected and discrimination banned, and that the venue wasn't the mayor's call.
On the planet and democracy, it's a mixed bag. He set a net-zero-by-2050 target and a building and EV plan, but argues nuclear power is the best path against climate change. In February he urged his party to cut ties with Yoon, saying people around its leader had made remarks that seemed to defend martial law.