Discontent mounts as DP chief ends first year on the job

In the year since he took the helm of the liberal Democratic Party, leader Lee Jae-myung's legal woes are only growing — as is disquiet within the ranks that his exposure to prosecution could drag the party down in next year's general election.

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung speaks at a training session for the party's lawmakers at Oak Valley, a resort in Wonju, Gangwon, on Monday. [YONHAP]

In the year since he took the helm of the liberal Democratic Party (DP), leader Lee Jae-myung's legal woes are only growing — as is disquiet within the party's ranks that his exposure to criminal prosecution could prove a drag in next year’s parliamentary elections.

To mark the first anniversary of his becoming party chairman, Lee is scheduled to give a press conference on Thursday, where he is expected to lay out his party’s agenda in the lead-up to the general election and continue his vociferous criticism of the conservative Yoon Suk Yeol administration.

But what should be an occasion for Lee to highlight his leadership of the largest party in the National Assembly is instead at risk of being overshadowed by multiple criminal investigations into development and bribery scandals tied to his tenure as mayor of Seongnam, and later as governor of Gyeonggi.

Lee’s office on Monday rejected the prosecution’s latest summons to the DP leader to appear for questioning on Wednesday. He is instead due to appear before investigators sometime in September, when the National Assembly is not in session, according to party officials.

Prosecutors summoned Lee to question him regarding payments from an underwear company to North Korea that they believe were part of an illegal lobbying effort to secure his visit to Pyongyang and guarantee the company’s involvement in future inter-Korean projects.

Speaking at a press briefing at the National Assembly on Monday, DP spokesman Park Seong-jun said that Lee would appear “confidently” before investigators at the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office, whom he characterized as “trying to obtain an arrest warrant [against Lee] based on botched fabrications that don’t even add up to a crime.”

But prosecutors suspect Lee, who served as Gyeonggi governor from 2018 to 2021, was a party to bribery through then-Gyeonggi vice governor Lee Hwa-young, who allegedly accepted illegal payments from the Ssangbangwool (SBW) Group on Lee Jae-myung’s behalf in return for guaranteeing the company’s involvement in potential future inter-Korean enterprises by the Gyeonggi government.

The company is suspected of violating sanctions by sending a total $8 million to Pyongyang between January 2019 and January 2020 via North Korean agents who met with Lee Hwa-young and SBW’s former chairman, Kim Seong-tae.

Lee Hwa-young, who was arrested on bribery charges in September last year and indicted for violating international sanctions on the North, initially denied the DP leader’s involvement in the case, but later admitted to keeping him informed about SBW’s payments to Pyongyang.

Kim was arrested in January while on the run in Thailand and is being prosecuted in the same case. He, too, has told prosecutors that Lee Jae-myung was aware of the nature and purpose of payments made to the North.

Apprehension within the DP regarding criminal allegations against Lee have only grown following reports that both Lee Hwa-young and Kim have begun talking to investigators about the DP leader’s role in SBW’s payments to North Korea.

In an interview with KBS Radio on Monday, DP Rep. Cho Eung-chon declined to explicitly score Lee’s performance as party leader, but admitted that he “failed to meet expectations.”

“Over the course of the year, we have not only collectively suffered from [Lee’s] increasing risk of prosecution, but also from the intensification of politics based on cults of personality and the deterioration of internal party democracy — so much so that the moral standing of our party is very much in doubt,” Cho said.

The DP lawmaker lamented that “even though the government and the People Power Party have made mistakes and are committing political suicide, the DP has been unable to capitalize on their failures,” implying that negative publicity surrounding allegations against Lee are to blame for his party’s lackluster showing in public opinion surveys.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]