Lee Jae-myung, "The Police Summoned Kim Hye-kyung. We Will Cooperate with the Investigation"

Lee Jae-myung, candidate for the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea presents his political views at a joint rally for the party’s leader and Supreme Council member candidates in Incheon at the Namdong Gymnasium on August 7. National Assembly press photographers

Kim Hye-kyung, the wife of lawmaker Lee Jae-myung, who is running for the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, was summoned by an investigative agency for her alleged misuse of a corporate credit card.

On August 9, the office of lawmaker Lee posted on social media, “Ms. Kim Hye-kyung received a request from the Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency this day to appear before the police.”

According to Lee’s office, the police are investigating the allegation that Kim used a Gyeonggi provincial government credit card for official activities to pay 78,000 won for a lunch she had with three party-related figures on August 2, 2021, which was after Lee officially announced his bid for the party’s presidential primaries. The investigation was launched after A, a grade-7 civil servant, tipped the police on the alleged misuse of the corporate credit card.

Kim has denied the allegation. Lee’s office said, “At the time, our camp had a clear guideline that stated, ‘The candidate and spouse will not provide or receive any meals when eating with another person’ to avoid any issues of irregularities,” and added, “The day in question, the lawyer B, who was in charge of accompanying Kim, paid 26,000 won for Kim’s meal with a credit card for political expenses that she received from Lee’s election campaign.” They further said, “At the time, Kim was not aware of the fact that A, who raised the allegation over the corporate card, had paid for the meals of the other three people with the Gyeonggi-do government card,” and argued, “She did not even see A at the restaurant.”