Prosecutors on Wednesday indicted opposition leader Lee Jae-myung on charges of being involved in an underwear maker’s unauthorized remittance to North Korea five years ago.
Lee is accused of asking Ssangbangwool Group to illegally transfer US$8 million to North Korea between 2019 and 2020, when he was serving as governor of Gyeonggi Province, through then Vice Gov. Lee Hwa-young to facilitate his planned visit to Pyongyang, the Suwon District Prosecutors Office said. In return, Lee allegedly promised the Gyeonggi provincial government’s support and guarantee for Ssangbangwool’s business in North Korea.
The prosecution office charged the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) with third-party bribery and violating the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act and the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act in connection with the North Korean remittance case.
With the latest indictment, the DP leader faces his fourth court trial on top of three existing ones under way at the Seoul Central District C
ourt regarding allegations of development project-related bribery, election law violations and perjury.
The indictment comes after a court sentenced Lee Hwa-young last Friday to 9 1/2 years in prison on multiple charges, including collusion in Ssangbangwool’s unauthorized transfer of $8 million to the North. The Suwon District Court handed down the sentence after recognizing $3.94 million of the $8 million as illegal funds smuggled overseas.
Prosecutors claim $5 million of the money was intended to help Gyeonggi’s smart farm support program in North Korea, and the rest was to facilitate Lee Jae-myung’s planned visit to Pyongyang. They also suspect that Lee Hwa-young had frequently reported the remittance process to Lee Jae-myung, as the court acknowledged the credibility of former Ssangbangwool Chairman Kim Seong-tae’s statement that he had directly talked to Lee Jae-myung twice on the remittance using Lee Hwa-young’s mobile phone.
Prosecutors alleged that Lee had sought a North Korean visit without the ap
proval of the unification minister in violation of the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act and violated the Foreign Exchange Transaction Act through the delivery of $8 million to the North’s regime.
They additionally indicted Lee Hwa-young on the charge of third-party bribery and Kim on charges of offering bribes.
The DP leader has persistently denied his charges, saying the $8 million paid by Ssangbangwool to North Korea was unrelated to the Gyeonggi government and was an expense paid by the group to independently pursue a business with the North.
Lee Hwa-young has also denied the charges. He once said that he had reported Ssangbangwool’s North Korean remittance to Lee Jae-myung but reversed his statement later.
In September last year, the prosecution requested an arrest warrant for the DP leader over the North Korean remittance and other cases, but the Seoul Central District Court refused to approve the warrant.
Source: Yonhap News Agency