Controversial activist drops out of consideration for committee chair

Lee Rae-kyung

A longtime progressive political activist tapped by the liberal Democratic Party (DP) to lead internal reform dropped out of consideration on Monday amid controversy over past remarks.

Lee Rae-kyung, chair of the progressive non-profit media platform The Tomorrow, was announced as the head of the party’s innovation committee by DP Chairman Lee Jae-myung at a party supreme council meeting earlier the same day, but declared he would not ultimately take up the post.

Lee attributed his decision to “political conflict” between Korea’s two main parties, likening the criticism against his appointment to a “witch hunt.”

The veteran activist came under fire for claiming that the South Korean Navy corvette ROKS Cheonan sank by self-detonation, instead of being torpedoed by the North, as was the conclusion of the South Korean-led multinational investigation.

In another Facebook post, Lee claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court on charges related to the deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia, is “not a war criminal.”

He also claimed the virus that causes Covid-19, which was first detected in China, originated in the United States.

When asked about Lee’s past comments, the DP leader said he was not aware of them, but declined to respond to questions about whether he would rescind Lee’s appointment.

Lee Rae-kyung is a familiar face in Korean civic and political movements.

Born in 1954, Lee was admitted to study metallurgical engineering at Seoul National University in 1973 but was suspended twice for participating in the country’s rising democracy movement.

He also served as the co-chair of the Sovereign National Assembly, a political reform advocacy organization that originated in the 2016-2017 protests calling for the ouster of then-President Park Geun-hye.

Lee is seen as being part of the DP faction closely aligned with the party leader.

Lee’s announcement that he would not take up the task of revamping the DP comes as the party faces myriad scandals concerning not only rank-and-file lawmakers, but also its current and former leaders.

Party leader Lee Jae-myung is currently under indictment on charges of committing bribery and breach of trust connected to two development projects from his tenure as mayor of Seongnam, Gyeonggi.

His predecessor, Song Young-gil, has been with hit accusations that his supporters distributed envelopes stuffed with cash to party members and lawmakers to shore up support for his ultimately successful party leadership bid in 2021.

Prosecutors last month requested that the National Assembly approve the arrests of Reps. Youn Kwan-suk and Lee Sung-man, both of whom left the DP over allegations that they helped distribute the bribes.

Rep. Kim Nam-kuk, a now-independent lawmaker, is also the subject of both a parliamentary review and investigation for his cryptocurrency transactions.

Kim left the party after it came to light that he bought and sold 6 billion won ($4.4 million) worth of Wemix cryptocurrency tokens that were issued by the game publisher Wemade from January to March last year.

Suspicions surrounding Kim’s crypto investments include the provenance of the money he used to buy the cryptocurrency and whether he used insider information to time his purchase and sale of Wemix tokens.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]