Tag: Lee Jae-myung

I am not sure what the prosecutors are hoping to find with this raid because you would think any evidence would have long been removed if it existed at all:

An apparently tearful opposition leader Lee Jae-myung cried foul Monday after prosecutors raided the headquarters of his Democratic Party (DP) in a corruption investigation that is zeroing in on him after the arrest of one of his closest aides.

Investigators made their way into the DP headquarters to search the office of Kim Yong, a longtime confidant of Lee, over allegations that he took 847 million won (US$591,000) from property developers in the suburban city of Seongnam in violation of the political fund law.

Kim, who was arrested Saturday, is deputy head of the DP-affiliated Institute for Democracy think tank. It was the second attempt to raid the DP headquarters after an earlier attempt fell through due to protests from party officials.

“The central headquarters building of the opposition party was violated in the middle of a parliamentary audit,” Lee told reporters in front of the party headquarters. “A terrible incident unprecedented in the history of democracy in the Republic of Korea is happening now.”

While speaking, Lee apparently became tearful, looked up at the sky and wiped his eye.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this is just another example of the rule by law in South Korea instead of rule of law. Whatever political party is in power uses the rule by law principle to go after their political enemies and this is just the continuation of this.

It is going to be interesting to see how this turns out because can you imagine what would happen if politicians were indicted every time they lied during a campaign?:

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was indicted on Thursday for allegations that he violated the election law by making false statements related to two land development projects in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, while campaigning for the presidential election last year.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office charged Lee, the chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), with election law violations, one day before the expiry of the statute of limitations for his cases.

Lee is suspected of spreading false information related to a land development project in Seongnam’s Daejang-dong, in violation of the election law, by denying knowing a key figure of the project during his presidential campaign.

In a TV interview on Dec. 22 last year, Lee denied acquaintance with Kim Moon-ki, a former head of Seongnam Development Corp.’s project development team, during his time as Seongnam mayor between 2015 and 2016.

Kim was found dead the previous day amid an investigation into his alleged involvement in the Daejang-dong scandal. Civic groups filed complaints against Lee after photos were released showing Lee together with Kim and several others, including some from an extended overseas business trip in January 2015. But Lee has claimed that he did not know Kim because he was a low-level municipal employee.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I thought the accusations against Lee Jae-myung’s wife would just go away after the election, but it appears investigators must have some really good evidence to go after her like this:

 The wife of former ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung was grilled by police Tuesday about allegations related to her personal use of a provincial government corporate credit card years ago.

Kim Hye-kyung left the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency in Suwon, 50 kilometers south of Seoul, at about 6:50 p.m. after undergoing five hours of questioning, accompanied by her lawyer.

Upon emerging from the police agency, she was asked by reporters about whether she admitted to suspicions related to her corporate credit card use but did not reply.

Kim is accused of using a credit card of the Gyeonggi government for personal shopping and eating, while her husband was Gyeonggi governor from 2018-2021.

She is also suspected of forcing civil servants to run her personal errands, such as getting drug prescriptions, buying prescription drugs on her behalf and paying for meals at restaurants. 

Allegations of Kim’s corporate credit card misuse and other misconduct surfaced early this year ahead of the March 9 presidential election.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like Lee Jae-myung and Ahn Cheol-soo are going to keep themselves relevant in South Korea’s politics by running for office again in the National Assembly:

Former presidential candidates Lee Jae-myung and Ahn Cheol-soo declared their bids, Sunday, for parliamentary seats in the June 1 by-elections, transforming the event to one of potentially high political stakes. 

Lee of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is the former Gyeonggi Province governor who lost the March 9 presidential election to President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol by a razor-thin margin, while Ahn Cheol-soo, the head of Yoon’s transition committee, also ran for president and merged his campaign with Yoon’s days prior to the election.

Lee will run for the seat representing Incheon’s Gyeyang-B district, which has been vacant since former DPK Chairman Rep. Song Young-gil resigned to run in the Seoul mayoral election in April, while Ahn will run for seat representing Bundang-A district of Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province, left by the Kim Eun-hye of the People Power Party (PPP), the former presidential transition committee spokesperson who is now running for the Gyeonggi provincial governor post. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It looks like a consequence of narrowing losing the ROK Presidential is that Lee Jae-myung is now open to being investigated:

Police raided Seongnam City Hall Monday over allegations that former presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung, who was mayor of Seongnam from 2010 to 2018, took donations from companies via the city’s football club, Seongnam FC.  
    
The Bundang Police Precinct announced Monday that they raided five divisions of the city government, including the planning and policy planning divisions. Lee’s home and other locations related to the case were not raided.  
   
“We cannot confirm specific investigation details such as what kind of documents were secured through the raid,” a spokesperson from the Bundang Police Precinct said. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Not smart of Lee Jae-myung to be insulting President Zelenskyy who maybe the most popular leader in the world right now:

Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), has made an apology for his remarks about Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a TV debate Friday regarding the cause of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which drew a backlash both here and abroad. 

“Unlike my intentions, if my words caused misunderstanding to Ukrainians, I lacked the ability to express myself well,” Lee wrote on Facebook, Saturday, adding that his remarks were mainly aimed at pointing out the ill-founded diplomatic and security views of his main rival Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party rather than disparaging the Ukrainian president.

During the TV debate held, Friday, Lee said a novice politician with six months of political experience had become the country’s leader and caused a major clash by inciting Russia with a hasty promise regarding Ukraine’s admission into NATO. (……….)

Denouncing Lee as an international embarrassment, Yoon said he would make an apology to Ukraine on behalf of South Korea, citing posts critical of Lee’s remarks that have been uploaded on Reddit, a popular American online community.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Real estate prices continues to be possibly the hottest topic that voters in Korea care about:

While varying degrees of despondency among non-homeowners are clearly present in the country, Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) infuriated voters in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, with an inadvertent comment during the four leading candidates’ second TV debate on Feb. 11. While discussing the country’s current real estate environment, he said that prices of apartments (the most common housing type in Korea) “with an area under 99 square meters in places like Gimpo are only around 200 million won to 300 million won” ($166,000 to $250,000).

While the average apartment in Seoul costs 1.2 billion won now ― a figure that the majority of low- to middle-income earners cannot afford ― Lee’s comment aroused objections that the range of 200 million won to 300 million won is way lower than what many members of the public thought. Lawmakers from the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) questioned whether the candidate is even aware of the country’s unstable housing market, which the current Moon Jae-in administration has been trying to control for so long.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but this is a rare misstep comment by Lee who is usually very polished in regards to what he says publicly.

Anyway President Moon has spent five years trying to do something about rising housing prices and has not succeeded so I would be surprised if either Presidential candidate will be able to do much to ease rising costs.

It must be a slow news day if the media is reaching this much to throw shade on Lee Jae-myung’s wife:

The wife of ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung has come under fire over allegations aides to her husband ran her errands, including picking up packs of beef and getting drug prescriptions and leaving them at her door.

Kim Hye-kyung, the wife of the Democratic Party (DP) presidential nominee, issued an apology Wednesday, five days after SBS TV first reported the claims, saying she took full responsibility for what transpired as she should have drawn a line between personal and official business.

Yonhap

You can read more a the link, but unless there is more that comes out I can’t imagine this is going to sway a Korean voter one way or another.

Considering the ROK’s past history of authoritarians seizing power, I think the five year term has been working very effectively for South Korea:

 Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung on Tuesday argued for a shift to a four-year presidential term, renewable once, from the current single five-year term, saying he is willing to opt for a shorter term if elected.

“For responsible politics, (South Korea) needs a double, four-year term under which power is decentralized,” Lee of the Democratic Party said during an interview with cable channel MBN. 

“Five years is not a span (sufficient for a president) to plan, enact and execute policies and see the results,” the presidential candidate said. 

He said a constitutional amendment for that shift is needed now, and he is more than willing to accept a shorter four-year term if elected president.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.