Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, will appear before the prosecution today (9th) regarding suspicions that he was involved in Ssangbangwool Group’s remittances to North Korea.
Yesterday, a day before the investigation into Representative Lee, the prosecution conducted a search and seizure of the National Election Commission in relation to suspicions of divisive donations, waging a war of nerves until the last minute.
Reporter Lee Yu-min reports.
[Report]
Lee Jae-myeong, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, will appear at the prosecution as a suspect at 10:30 a.m. today.
This is in relation to the investigation into Ssangbangwool Group’s suspicion of remittances to North Korea, and this is the fifth prosecution summons since taking office as party leader.
The charge that the prosecution applied to CEO Lee was, first of all, third-party bribery.
In 2019, when he was the governor of Gyeonggi Province, he had Ssangbangwool Group hand over $8 million to North Korea on behalf of Gyeonggi Province.
The key question in today’s investigation is whether CEO Lee ordered, was reported to, or approved this matter.
The prosecution has been confident of proving the charges based on former Vice Governor Lee Hwa-young’s statement that she reported directly to Governor Lee Jae-myung twice.
However, former Deputy Governor Lee released a handwritten letter the day before yesterday and overturned his previous statement, saying he made false statements due to pressure from the prosecution.
The prosecution reacted angrily안전놀이터, accusing the former vice-governor Lee’s spouse and the Democratic Party’s lawyer of obstruction of justice, and yesterday they raided the National Election Commission and secured a list of sponsors of Representative Lee Jae-myung during the last presidential primary.
Kim Seong-tae, former chairman of Ssangbangwool Group, is putting pressure on CEO Lee by launching a compulsory investigation into the suspicion that he provided partial support.
The questionnaire prepared by the prosecution today is 150 pages long.
The prosecution plans to ask CEO Lee whether he was informed of Ssangbangwool Group’s remittances to North Korea, how he promoted the visit to North Korea while he was governor of Gyeonggi Province, and whether there was an agreement to accompany Ssangbangwool to visit North Korea.
As Representative Lee is on his 10th day of fasting, the prosecution decided to prepare for any unexpected situation by deploying a doctor and an ambulance near the government building.
Meanwhile, groups supporting and opposing Lee Jae-myung each announced a rally around the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office today, and the police announced that they would mobilize their experience to prevent clashes in advance.