National Assembly clears way for DP leader's arrest

Politics

Published: 21 Sep. 2023, 16:55 Updated: 22 Sep. 2023, 17:03

National Assembly clears way for DP leader's arrest

Democratic Party floor leader Park Kwang-on, center, slumps in his chair after hearing the results of the vote on the arrest motion against party leader Lee Jae-myung at the National Assembly in Seoul on Thursday. [YONHAP]

The National Assembly passed a motion allowing the arrest of Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung during a heated plenary session on Thursday afternoon, marking the first time that the legislature has given its consent to the arrest of the leader of a major political party.

The motion, brought forward by prosecutors accusing the DP chairman of a raft of corruption charges including bribery and breach of trust, was supported by 149 lawmakers — just one more than the minimum necessary for its approval.

Out of a total 295 lawmakers who voted anonymously, 136 cast votes against the motion. Nine abstained, while four ballots were declared invalid.

Under the Constitution, the consent of a majority of National Assembly members is required to arrest sitting lawmakers while the legislature is in session.

National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo examines one of the ballots cast during the vote on the arrest motion against Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung on Thursday afternoon. [YONHAP]

The motion’s unexpected passage marks a dramatic downturn in Lee’s political fortunes.

Lee, who ran as his party’s candidate in last year’s presidential election but lost to former Prosecutor General and now-President Yoon Suk Yeol, won his seat in the National Assembly via a by-election held in June last year. Two months later, he also won the DP chairmanship in a race that appeared to cement his control over the party.

But the corruption allegations that dogged his presidential run and ensnared his acquaintances never went away.

He survived a previous motion brought forward by prosecutors seeking his arrest in February.

While most of the party’s lawmakers voted down that motion, the total number of votes cast in opposition — 138 — fell not only short of the party’s share of seats, but also the 139 votes cast in favor of his arrest, suggesting sizeable unease within his party regarding the accusations against him.

The DP holds a 167-seat majority in the National Assembly against its conservative, government-aligned rival, the People Power Party (PPP), which currently holds 111 seats.

The vote on the prosecutors’ latest arrest motion on Thursday showed that a significant number of the party’s lawmakers appeared to have finally broken ranks to allow their leader’s arrest.

Speaking before a raucous plenary session on the National Assembly floor at 3:30 p.m., Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon argued forcefully to convince lawmakers to approve the arrest motion.

Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon addresses lawmakers at the National Assembly on Thursday afternoon. [YONHAP]

“Lee has committed a serious crime by asking a businessman with connections to organized crime to deliver a large sum of foreign currency to North Korea in violation of United Nations sanctions so that he could consolidate his political status,” the minister said over the shouts of DP lawmakers opposed to the motion.

The gravest of the allegations against Lee is that he violated international sanctions and committed bribery through a third party by asking underwear company Ssangbangwool to illegally transfer $8 million to North Korea, purportedly to arrange his visit to Pyongyang and to woo the North to engage in inter-Korean economic cooperation with Gyeonggi, where the DP leader served as governor from 2018 to 2021.

Han also detailed other charges against Lee, including allegations that he directed officials to rig the profit-sharing structures of development projects in Daejang-dong and Baekhyeon-dong in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, to favor certain private investors.

Lee served as mayor of Seongnam from 2010 to 2018.

If found guilty of all the charges, Lee could be sentenced to between 11 years and lifetime imprisonment, according to legal experts.

Lee, who has been has been on hunger strike since Aug. 31 to protest the Yoon administration’s economic and foreign policies, did not appear at the National Assembly nor speak in his own defense before the arrest motion against him was put to a vote.

He has been in hospital since Monday, when he was found almost unconscious in his office, his blood sugar levels having fallen sharply.

Prosecutors filed a motion for parliamentary consent to arrest Lee later that day.

In a post uploaded to Facebook on Wednesday, Lee urged lawmakers to “put a halt to the train of prosecutorial dictatorship at the National Assembly.”

His message was widely interpreted as calling on DP lawmakers to vote against the arrest motion.

Although Lee previously said he would not ask his party to shield him from arrest, he argued in his Facebook post that prosecutors were “playing politics” by forcing the issue to a vote, which he claimed was aimed at dividing the DP internally or stoking public backlash if it voted against its leader’s arrest.

The DP and its supporters have accused the state prosecution service of running a politically motivated investigation to bring down Lee.

But others, such as the government-aligned PPP, have accused Lee of trying to hide behind his party’s supermajority in the National Assembly to avoid investigation.

Supporters of Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung gathered outside the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, react after they hear the news that the legislature had approved the arrest motion against him on Thursday afternoon. [YONHAP]

The National Assembly’s approval of Thursday’s motion marks a rare instance in the legislature’s 75-year history that it has approved the arrest of a sitting lawmaker.

A total of 68 motions for the arrest of a sitting lawmaker have been considered by the National Assembly since 1948, when Korea’s first constitution was promulgated.

Only 17, including Lee’s, have been approved by the legislature, with 18 being rejected and 33 being withdrawn or expired.

There was little sign in the National Assembly on Thursday that enough DP lawmakers would turn outright against Lee and support his arrest.

Earlier in the afternoon, the National Assembly passed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Han Duck-soo in a vote that fell largely along party lines, with 175 votes in favor and 116 votes opposing. Four votes were marked as invalid.

It also marked the first time since the current Constitution was adopted that the legislature has recommended the dismissal of an incumbent prime minister.

The recommendation for Han’s dismissal was brought forward by the DP on the same day that prosecutors submitted their arrest motion against Lee.

The DP has accused Han of serious incompetence as chief of the Cabinet and said the motion was necessary to hold him responsible for a litany of alleged failures by the Yoon administration, such as its lukewarm response to Japan’s release of radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and the debacle of last month’s World Scout Jamboree.

The no-confidence motion against Han is the third such motion to be passed by the DP-controlled National Assembly since Yoon took office in May last year.

The first was against Foreign Minister Park Jin in the aftermath of widely reported diplomatic gaffes committed by the president during a trip to London and New York last September, while the second was against Interior Minister Lee Sang-min for his alleged failure to prevent and properly follow up on the deadly crowd crush that claimed over 150 lives in the nightlife quarter of Itaewon during Halloween festivities last year.

Yoon rejected both motions and is expected to reject the latest one against Han as well.

Unlike impeachment, which results in an official’s automatic suspension from their post until the Constitutional Court reaches a final decision, no-confidence motions do not carry the force of law.

The presidential office has argued that the DP’s most recent call for the prime minister’s dismissal is aimed at consolidating internal party cohesion and diverting public attention away from the arrest motion against Lee.

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