DP head Lee Jae-myung summoned for questioning on election law violations

Rep. Lee Jae-myung, new leader of the Democratic Party (DP), speaks during a party supreme council meeting held in Gwangju on Friday. [YONHAP]

The prosecution on Thursday summoned Lee Jae-myung, the newly elected leader of the Democratic Party (DP), for questioning next week over an ongoing probe on allegations of election law violations.

The main opposition leader was called to the prosecution next Tuesday as part of an investigation into allegations that he lied during the last presidential campaign about the Daejang-dong development corruption scandal pushed for in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, when Lee was its mayor.

In a television interview last December during the presidential campaign, Lee denied knowing the director of the Seongnam Development Corporation's project development team, Kim Moon-gi. Kim, at the time, was being investigated as a person of interest in the scandal but took his own life. Shortly after, photos were released of Lee together with Kim and others, and a civic group filed a complaint against Lee.

Once Lee attends the questioning, prosecutors will investigate whether or not he knew Kim and whether his past related remarks were false.

Lee will also be investigated for allegations that he lied about a land development project in Baekhyeon-dong, also in Seongnam.

This scandal centered around allegations that the municipal government of Seongnam gave special treatment to a private developer and changed the land usage of the development site. Lee is under investigation on suspicion of violating the election law by making an allegedly false claim during a parliamentary session last October that the developer of the Baekhyeon-dong project was given special treatment at the request of the Land Ministry.

The DP leader strongly protested the summons on Friday.

“Because they tried putting me in a corner as if they were dusting off, they are nitpicking at absurd things, and that is not appropriate,” Lee said while presiding his first supreme council meeting of the DP on Friday after being elected as the party chairman.

Lee, who was defeated by the People Power Party's (PPP) Yoon by a narrow margin in March's presidential election, was elected the DP's new leader in a landslide vote Sunday.

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]