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Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, pays a visit to a senior center in Seoul’s Gwanak District on Feb. 16. (pool photo)

For the first time in Korea’s modern history, prosecutors have sought an arrest warrant for the chairperson of the main opposition party.

On Thursday, the first and third anti-corruption divisions of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office announced that as part of their investigation into accusations of preferential treatment in relation to the Daejang neighborhood development case and the soliciting of support funds for Seongnam Football Club (FC) they have sought an arrest warrant for Lee Jae-myung, head of the Democratic Party.

The warrant is being sought on charges of breach of duty and bribery, violations of the Act on the Prevention of Conflicts of Interests and the former Anti-Corruption Act, and attempts to conceal illegal proceeds.

Prosecutors claim that Lee acquired a total of 788.6 billion won (US$600 million) in illegal profits during his tenure as mayor of Seongnam and the final approval authority for the city, by acquiescing to the demands of private businesses.

Prosecutors further claim that Seongnam only received 183 billion won in dividends, meaning that it lost 489.5 billion won. Lee faces suspicion of leaking business secrets of Seongnam and the Seongnam Development Corporation (SDC) to private companies.

The allegation of soliciting support funds for the city’s football club is based on the grounds that, when Lee was mayor of Seongnam and the chairperson of Seongnam FC, he received 13.35 billion won from four companies in the jurisdiction, including Doosan Engineering & Construction and Naver, in the name of donations and advertising expenses.

The prosecution suspects that Lee helped these companies handle complaints in return for the donations.

Prosecutor General Lee One-seok commented on the matter on Thursday, saying, “We regard this as a very serious local land corruption issue, since, by illegal government-business collusion between local powers and real estate developers, the astronomical development profits that should have been returned to local residents and local governments were shared between developers and brokers,”

It is unusual for the prosecutor general to give an official statement describing his stance on a request for an arrest warrant.

Lee and other members of the Democratic Party’s leadership are strongly protesting this request.

“Today is the day in which Yoon Suk-yeol’s prosecution dictatorship has declared the privatization of prosecution rights,” Lee proclaimed at an emergency meeting held by the Democratic Party’s Supreme Council on Thursday afternoon. “I have not committed a single act of fraud and I have not taken a single penny of money from dishonest means.”

Lee asserted that this request for an arrest warrant “will go down in history as an unheard-of case.”

The Democratic Party plans to hold a rally on Friday to protest what they characterize as the “Yoon administration’s dictatorship of prosecutors.” Around 1,500 lawmakers, regional chairpersons, party officials and aides are expected to gather.

Lee has denied all charges in his previous three summons, at which he substituted spoken answers with written statements. In one of those statements, Lee said, “We did not cause the city of Seongnam to experience a loss, but rather made a private operator in the Daejang district bear an additional 112 billion won,” adding that the grounds on which the charge of breach of duty is “fundamentally false.”

In response to allegations of soliciting support funds for Seongnam FC, the Democratic leader said, “The advertising contracts were the fruit of the labor of the club’s executives and employees, who are unrelated to the Seongnam City administration. I have not been involved in the club’s advertising sales. I have not taken any private profit regarding the club’s management or advertising expenses.”

As Lee is a sitting member of the National Assembly, the parliamentary body will have to pass a motion for the arrest of Lee. But seeing that the Democratic Party holds a majority in the body, it is unlikely that the arrest motion will pass.

By Son Hyun-soo, staff reporter; Lim Jae-woo, staff reporter; Shin Min-jung, staff reporter

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