DP's Lee faces little competition, only legal challenges in path to presidency

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DP's Lee faces little competition, only legal challenges in path to presidency

Published: 10 Apr. 2025, 07:00

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, center, arrives at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, to attend a hearing of his trial on charges of breach of trust and bribery on April 8. [NEWS1]

Following former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s removal from office, liberal Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung faces little competition in his bid to become Korea’s next leader.

Lee announced on Wednesday that he is stepping down as DP chairman, clearing the way for him to run in the early presidential election scheduled for June 3.

The only stumbling blocks on Lee’s path to the presidential office are the court trials that he is expected to attend as a suspect in five criminal indictments concerning various scandals that took place during his 2010-2018 tenure as mayor of Seongnam and 2018-2021 term as governor of Gyeonggi.

Lee can already rest a little easier when it comes to his alleged violations of election law in 2021, as he was acquitted in the case last month by the Seoul High Court.

While prosecutors have appealed the ruling, the Supreme Court has overturned an acquittal and directly sentenced a suspect in less than six percent of appeals it has heard.

If it disagrees with a ruling on a suspect’s first appeal, the top court usually remands the case to the appellate court instead.

As such, even if the Supreme Court takes the prosecution’s side, the probable retrial by the Seoul High Court would not conclude until well after the upcoming election.

Lee would already be president by then, and thus immune to further prosecution, if the election goes the same way that polls are currently pointing.

Under Article 84 of the Korean Constitution, the president cannot be indicted except on charges of treason and sedition.

Most constitutional experts believe this immunity also covers ongoing indictments, and Lee himself has said recently that he believes this to be the case.

While the theory has never been tested by previous leading presidential contenders, legal experts believe Lee’s trials would at least be halted for the duration of his presidency if he were to be elected.

However, the prosecution has given little sign of abandoning their cases against Lee in the time left before the election.

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, walks out of the Seoul High Court in Seoul on March 26, after the court overturned a suspended prison term against him for lying as a presidential candidate during the 2022 election, acquitting him of the charge. [YONHAP]

In addition to the Seoul High Court’s ruling, prosecutors have also appealed Lee’s acquittal by the Seoul Central District Court in November last year on charges of suborning a former secretary to ex-Seongnam Mayor Kim Byung-ryang to commit perjury when Lee was accused of violating election law in 2018.

Although Lee was ultimately acquitted in that case, prosecutors later alleged he got off the hook because he convinced the secretary, Kim Jin-seong, to testify in his favor.

The first preparatory hearing of the prosecution’s appeal in Lee’s subornation case was held on Tuesday, and the Seoul High Court would likely render its decision by July at earliest.

In the third indictment, Lee is also accused committing breach of trust in several Seongnam development projects that began while he was mayor.

In one project, located in the city’s Daejang-dong area, private developers were able to rake in 788.6 billion won ($537.7 million) from apartment sales despite investing paltry amounts.

Lee Jae-myung

Prosecutors allege that Lee was responsible for the project’s skewed profit scheme, which they say cost the city-owned developer 489.5 billion won in losses.

They have also accused Lee of unfairly helping one private developer edge out a competitor in another project, located in the city’s Baekhyeon-dong area — as well as leaking internal information about the Wirye New Town development to private developers at the time of its launch in 2013, allowing them to reap 21.1 billion won in profits.

Though Lee has been summoned five times as a witness in a separate trial involving private developers implicated in the Daejang-dong scandal, he has refused to testify on all occasions.

On Monday, the court decided to stop summoning him after assessing it had no realistic way of forcing him to appear.

While individuals who repeatedly defy court summonses can usually be detained, this would not be possible in Lee’s case, as he is a sitting lawmaker.

Prosecutors have further alleged that Lee used his authority as mayor to provide business benefits and favorable treatment to major companies that agreed to sponsor Seongnam’s football club, which he once owned.

They assert that Lee rezoned a plot of land owned by Doosan Engineering & Construction in the city’s Bundang District after the company paid 5 billion won in corporate sponsorship to Seongnam FC.

The charges against Lee from his time as Seongnam mayor have been consolidated into a single case that is pending before the Seoul Central District Court.

The first hearing of that trial was held on March 4 following the assignment of a new judge to the case.

The fourth indictment filed against Lee accuses of him of committing third-party bribery by being the intended beneficiary of underwear company Ssangbangwool’s illegal remittances to North Korea from 2019 to 2020.

According to prosecutors, company executives, such as former chairman Kim Seong-tae, paid $8 million to North Korean agents after being promised that Ssangbangwool would be included in inter-Korean projects spearheaded by the Gyeonggi provincial government, then led by Lee.

Lee’s vice governor, Lee Hwa-young, was handed a prison sentence of seven years and eight months by the Suwon High Court in December last year for his involvement in the scandal.

Lee Jae-myung’s own trial before the Suwon District Court is due to resume on April 23, four months after his lawyers demanded the recusal of presiding judge Shin Jin-woo over concerns of bias.

While Lee has been indicted on charges of misusing the corporate card issued by the Gyeonggi provincial government on personal expenses during his gubernatorial term, that case has yet to go to trial.

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]