DP says corruption probe is pure political payback

Politics

Published: 20 Oct. 2022, 19:04

DP says corruption probe is pure political payback

Lawmakers from the Democratic Party (DP) protest a parliamentary audit hearing at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Thursday. The DP said it would boycott all audit hearings to protest the prosecution’s “politically motivated” probes against the party’s leader, but retracted the threat later. [NEWS1]

Democratic Party (DP) Chairman Lee Jae-myung denied receiving any illegal funds for his failed 2022 presidential campaign on Thursday in his first public remarks about the prosecution’s arrest of a former aide.

Seoul prosecutors on Wednesday arrested a close aide to Lee on allegations of taking 800 million won ($559,000) in bribes from a private investor linked to the controversial Daejang-dong development project.

Prosecutors believe that the aide, 55-year-old Kim Yong, who’s the deputy head of a DP-affiliated think tank named the Institute for Democracy, used the kickbacks in Lee’s campaign because the transactions took place from April to August 2021, when the DP was holding its presidential primary.

Kim originally planned to take 2 billion won, prosecutors say, but ended up taking only 800 million won after local media began reporting on the Daejang-dong scandal late last year.

When Kim allegedly received the bribes, he was deputy chief of Lee's primary campaign's general headquarters.

In October 2021, Lee was chosen as the DP’s presidential candidate. From November 2021 to March 2022, Kim served as the deputy chief of the general headquarters at DP’s central election headquarters.

Lee ultimately lost to Yoon Suk-yeol on March 9 by the smallest margin in Korean history.

After the defeat, Lee, a former mayor of Seongnam city and governor of Gyeonggi province, was chosen chairman of the liberal DP.

Lee told reporters on Thursday after a meeting with DP lawmakers that he never “saw or used” any illegal funds for his presidential campaign, accusing the prosecution of trying to please President Yoon by pressing false charges against him.

“I have trusted and been with Kim Yong, deputy chief of the Institute for Democracy, for a long time,” Lee said. “I still believe in his innocence.”

In the meeting with the DP lawmakers, Lee was said to have strongly criticized prosecutors for “oppressing” his party.

The DP has been blasting the prosecution and Yoon government since Kim was apprehended on Wednesday, saying that the probe was politically motivated and masterminded by Yoon’s presidential office.

When asked about the accusations on Thursday on his way to work, Yoon told local reporters that all he know about the probes was what he reads in the news.

“I’m not idle enough to keep track of the investigations,” he said.

Yoon said it was “unfair” for the DP to accuse him of "oppressing" the party after all the raids that prosecutors carried out on news organizations in the former Moon Jae-in administration, when its candidate won the presidency.

After arresting Kim and raiding his residence on Wednesday morning, prosecutors attempted to raid Kim’s office at the DP headquarters in Yeouido, western Seoul, later that afternoon, but failed due to protests from DP lawmakers.

About 10 prosecutors and investigators arrived at the entrance of the DP headquarters at around 3 p.m. on Wednesday but were blocked. The blockade lasted nearly eight hours until 11 p.m. until prosecutors gave in and left the scene.

DP members, left, block prosecutors from entering the party’s headquarters in Yeouido on Wednesday night. [YONHAP]

At around 4 p.m. on Wednesday, DP spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom held a press conference in which he called prosecutors “brutal” for trying to raid the headquarters. About an hour later, the party released an official statement saying it wouldn’t allow prosecutors in.

DP lawmakers accused Yoon of trying to take political revenge on Lee to divert public attention from its own problems amid sinking approval ratings.

The DP on Wednesday said it would boycott all parliamentary audit hearings, only to reverse its stance the next morning.

Rep. Chung Jin-suk of Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) expressed “regret” at the DP’s refusal to allow prosecutors into their headquarters, urging them to open the gates if they did nothing wrong.

According to prosecutors, Lee's aide Kim took the bribes in cash on several occasions from April to August 2021. They were allegedly handed to him by at least three people: a lawyer named Nam Wook; Jeong Min-yong, who at the time was head of the Seongnam Development Corporation’s strategic project office; and Yoo Dong-gyu, who was the company’s planning director.

Testimony from Yoo, who was indicted last month for bribery and breach of trust in the Wirye New Town development project, was said to have been key to Kim’s arrest.

In a text message to local reporters on Wednesday, Kim denied receiving bribes from Daejang-dong investors, saying that prosecutors were “making things up” to sabotage him.

Kim said prosecutors were “bringing the country back to the days of dictatorship.”

Kim is known to have been close to Lee ever since Lee was mayor of Seongnam, Gyeonggi from 2010 to 2018.

Fishy profit structures in at least two controversial land development projects, called Daejang-dong and Baekhyeon-dong, were troublesome issues for Lee after he announced his bid for the presidency, although Lee has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

The prosecution’s probes into the shady projects picked up momentum after Yoon became president.

BY LEE SUNG-EUN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]