Lee Jae-myung, "I Never Spent a Single Won of Illegal Funds in the Presidential Election"

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, makes an opening comment ahead of an emergency meeting of the party’s lawmakers at the National Assembly on the morning of October 20. National Assembly press photographers

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, said on October 20, “I never spent a single won of illegal funds in the presidential election.”

Lee made the statement at a meeting with the press after a general meeting of the Democratic Party lawmakers at the National Assembly on Thursday.

Earlier on Wednesday, prosecutors arrested Kim Yong, one of Lee’s closest aides and also the vice director of the Institute for Democracy, for receiving political funds for the presidential election. They also attempted to conduct a search and seizure of the institute.

Lee spoke on the actions taken by the prosecutors and said, “They call it funds for the presidential election, but after a new government entered office and the investigators at the Prosecution Service changed, they (Daejang-dong businessmen) changed their statements.” Lee also said, “Kim is a man I have long trusted and worked with, and I still believe he is innocent.”

In the general meeting of the party’s lawmakers, Lee spoke on the prosecutors’ attempt to search the Democratic Party of Korea office and said, “This is indeed oppression, not politics,” and argued that the people involved in the alleged favors in the Daejang-dong development project “changed their statements after a new government entered office and new prosecutors were assigned to the case.” Lee mentioned the details of a recording of attorney Nam Wook, involved in the Daejang-dong allegations, and said, “It (recording) mentioned that they had tried to get me involved for ten years but never found the smallest chance and that they’d get in big trouble if the mayor’s office on the second floor found out that they had received money. But after a new government entered office and new prosecutors were assigned to the case, they changed their statements.”