”Gifts for children”... Candidate Lee Jun-seok's mother ”distributed rice cakes” during campaign tour, may be in violation of the Public Offices Election Act (Korea)

Recently, a video of the mother of Lee Jun-seok, presidential candidate of the New Reform Party, handing out rice cakes to children at a campaign event in South Korea was spread online.
According to a May 27 report by Financial News, the Seoul branch of the National Election Commission reported the matter to the National Election Commission and received a verbal warning for allegedly violating the Public Offices Election Act.
The City Election Commission investigated the illegality of the donation made by the mother of candidate Lee at a campaign event, and responded to the whistleblower who requested an investigation on May 25th by saying, "We will investigate this matter and take appropriate measures to prevent any violations."
On May 23, the reporter, Mr. A, stated, "On May 21, I posted an image on multiple online communities and YouTube channels.
"A video of the candidate's mother making a donation was made public. Immediately after confirming it, we reported it to the Central Election Commission," he said.
The video that Mr. A mentioned shows a mother giving her son support at a campaign event for candidate Lee Jun-seok.
Candidate Lee's mother personally handed the rice cakes to her child who was watching the campaign and took a commemorative photo with the citizens at the scene. Candidate Lee's supporters were filming and shouting "I
The mother of the candidate is giving a present to the children who support the candidate." After this video was made public, the act of giving rice cakes to children was found to be in violation of Article 114 of the Public Offices Election Act.
(Restrictions on donations by political parties and candidates' families) An opinion was raised that this may be a donation that is prohibited under Article 1. In particular, the financial interests of candidates' families during election campaigns may be subject to the restrictions.
If a person provides donations (food, drink, etc.) to a charity, he/she may be sentenced to imprisonment of up to 5 years or a fine of up to 10 million won under Article 257, Paragraph 1, Item 1 of the same act (violation of prohibitions and restrictions on donations).
Heo Eun-ha, former chairwoman of the New Reform Party, who endorsed Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung, also raised the issue, citing Article 114, Section 1 of the Public Offices Election Act and the video in question.
Article 114, paragraph 1 of the Act clearly states that a candidate's family members are prohibited from making any donations to the candidate or the political party to which the candidate belongs.
In response, candidate Lee Jun-seok's side said, "The broadcast on the day of the first presidential debate was held.
Supporters came to the area around the broadcasting station to show their support. The candidate's mother gave a rice cake to a child who had stayed with his parents until late into the night as a token of her appreciation. She gave the rice cake without knowing it was against the law.
Regarding this case, an official from the Election Management Committee said, "Since the ballots were not distributed to other people and were only for one child who does not have the right to vote, we have determined that this is a minor matter.
"We informed the deputy that this constitutes a violation of election law and made them promise to prevent it from happening again."