Raid succeeds at DP HQ, sparking party outrage

Politics

Published: 24 Oct. 2022, 16:31

Raid succeeds at DP HQ, sparking party outrage

Democratic Party (DP) Chairman Lee Jae-myung, center, is choked up as he speaks to reporters as prosecutors conduct a raid of a think tank located in his party’s headquarters in Yeouido, western Seoul, Monday. [JANG JIN-YOUNG]

Prosecutors raided a think tank in the Democratic Party (DP) headquarters Monday to look for evidence that an ally of DP chief Lee Jae-myung accepted illegal funds from a scandal-plagued urban development project.

Around 8:45 a.m. Monday, prosecutors entered the DP-affiliated Institute for Democracy think tank, located on the eighth floor of the party headquarters in Yeouido, western, Seoul, to search the belongings and computer of Lee's former aide Kim Yong.

The Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office's anticorruption team is investigating Kim, deputy head of the Institute for Democracy, for allegedly taking a total of 847 million won ($593,552) from property developers in the Daejang-dong land development in Seongnam, Gyeonggi.

Kim was arrested on Saturday for violating the Political Fund Act. He is accused of taking money on four occasions between April and August in 2021, ahead of the DP's presidential primary. Prosecutors believe the funds were used in Lee's presidential campaign.

Kim was in charge of fundraising for the primary for Lee, who ultimately lost the March 9 presidential election to his People Power Party (PPP) rival Yoon Suk-yeol.

Last Wednesday, prosecutors failed to raid the think tank's office after a seven-hour standoff with DP lawmakers who blocked investigators from entering.

"A terrible thing is happening that has never been seen in the history of political parties and democracy in the Republic of Korea," a choked up Lee told reporters in front of the party headquarters around 11 a.m., referring to the prosecution raid.

"There is an attempt to invade the heart of our party by the opposing party," he said.

With tears in his eyes, Lee said, "I hope that the people will not forget this historical scene and protect our regressing democracy."

The DP claimed that prosecutors entered the building unannounced, disguised as employees arriving for work earlier that morning.

"Our party has been pillaged in an unprecedented event," Park Sung-joon, a DP spokesman, told reporters in front of the building.

Park claimed that investigators didn't notify them in advance of the search and seizure operation.

They entered the DP headquarters mixed in with people going to work "without revealing their identities," Park said.

He questioned whether it was normal for a law enforcement agency to raid a political party's headquarters and called the prosecution's operation a "political show."

He described the raid as "outright political repression" of the DP.

DP floor leader Park Hong-keun immediately called for key party members to hold an emergency meeting to discuss a response, saying that "Prosecutor Yoon Suk-yeol is again attempting a raid of our party."

Prosecutors said the raid was not of the DP but limited to the office of the Institute for Democracy, a separate entity, and in accordance with a warrant issued by a Seoul district court.

According to prosecutors, the investigation team presented their warrant to staffers on the first floor and used the elevator to go to the eighth floor. They waited for Kim's lawyer to show up for several hours.

The attorney arrived around 2 p.m. and the raid began, they said.

The Daejang-dong land development scandal centers on allegations that an obscure and small private asset management company, Hwacheon Daeyu, and its affiliates reaped exponential profits from the 2015 project, which was during Lee's time as Seongnam's mayor.

Kim's arrest seems to indicate that the investigation is closing in on Lee himself. Lee, before he was elected a lawmaker in June immediately after his presidential election defeat in March, served as Seongnam mayor from 2010 to 2018 and Gyeonggi governor from 2018 to 2021.

Prosecutors raid the Institute for Democracy think tank in the Democratic Party (DP) headquarters in Yeouido, western Seoul, Monday. [YONHAP]

The raid delayed some parliamentary audit sessions scheduled for Monday morning.

DP lawmakers held a press conference condemning the raid in front of the Yongsan presidential office in central Seoul later that day.

President Yoon's key budget speech at the National Assembly is slated for Tuesday, and DP lawmakers have been discussing a boycott.

DP Chairman Lee in a Supreme Council meeting Monday morning said that it was "difficult to comprehend" why the prosecution raid was taking place a day before the president's budget speech, saying it "goes against common sense."

The DP is calling for an independent counsel probe into the Daejang-dong project, which the PPP is not considering.

"There is no country in the world where the party under investigation can choose an investigative authority, as if shopping, at least among democracies," Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon said Monday on the DP's proposal for an independent counsel probe into the Daejang-dong project.

President Yoon brushed off the DP's threats to boycott his parliamentary budget speech.

"The Constitution guarantees the president's right to speak at the National Assembly," Yoon told reporters at the Yongsan presidential office Monday morning, adding that the National Assembly Act requires lawmakers "to listen to the budget speech when a budget proposal is submitted."

He said no additional conditions should be attached over the budget speech, saying he's never "heard of it in our constitutional history."

Police stand guard as Democratic Party (DP) lawmakers speak to reporters as prosecutors conduct a raid of a think tank in the party headquarters in Yeouido, western Seoul, Monday. [YONHAP]

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]