Tag: Lee Jae-myung

Here is the latest on leading Korean Presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung’s legal problems:

An appellate court will hold the first hearing of a retrial in an election law violation case involving Democratic Party (DP) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung on May 15, just weeks before the June election. 

The Seoul High Court set the date just one day after the Supreme Court struck down the lower court’s acquittal of Lee on charges of election law violation in March and remanded the case for a retrial. 

Yonhap

It appears regardless of what happens Lee will be able to run for President. What is not clear is if the trial can continue while he is President and what happens if he is convicted:

The appeals court said it has requested a court official to directly deliver a summons to Lee to attend the hearing.

If Lee does not appear at the hearing, the court would need to reschedule the trial, making it unlikely that a verdict will be delivered before June 3.

Even if Lee is sentenced before the election, he would likely appeal it, which would enable him to run in the race. 

There is currently no clear rule on whether a criminal trial in progress may continue if the indicted individual is later elected president.

Earlier in the day, the DP proposed a bill that suspends an ongoing criminal trial for a president-elect, which is seen as a move to mitigate legal risks surrounding Lee.

You can read more at the link.

Out of all the shady things that Lee Jae-myung is under investigation for lying to the media could be what brings him down:

The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a lower court’s acquittal of Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung on charges of election law violation, sending the case back to the appeals court.

In a televised decision, the top court overturned the Seoul High Court’s verdict in March, which acquitted Lee of lying as a presidential candidate during the 2022 election campaign.

The Supreme Court’s ruling came about a month before the country will hold the June 3 presidential election. The case has drawn intense attention due to the possibility that the top court’s decision could affect his eligibility to run for office.

Yonhap

What is interesting about the verdict is that it was an overwhelming decision. 10 of the 12 justices agreed that the appeals court was wrong to overturn the conviction. You would think a Supreme Court ruling would reimpose the verdict that the appeals court nullified. However, according to the Korea Times his case has to be retried:

The Supreme Court on Thursday overturned an appellate court’s decision to acquit Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung of his election law violation charges, sending the case back to the high court for a retrial.

The ruling does not immediately disqualify Lee as a candidate in the upcoming June 3 presidential election, as the retrial verdict is unlikely to be reached before Election Day. However, the Supreme Court’s ruling — which found that the appellate court misinterpreted parts of the law, effectively implying Lee’s guilt on some charges — is expected to reignite political debate over his suitability as a candidate, with less than five weeks remaining before the election.

Under the relevant law, anyone fined 1 million won ($699.30) or more for violating the nation’s election law is barred from running for public office for the next five years or up to 10 years if sentenced to imprisonment.

The case centers on two controversial remarks made by Lee during his previous presidential campaign in 2021. Prosecutors charged him with violating the Public Official Election Act for allegedly making false statements regarding land development projects in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, which took place while he was mayor of the city.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but it is going to be interesting to see how this ruling impacts Korea Presidential election which Lee is the current favorite to win.

Anyone surprised by this news that Lee Jae-myung now that he is favored to win the Presidency is now no longer interested in limiting Presidential powers?:

The People Power Party on Monday backed National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik’s proposal to hold a referendum on amending the Constitution to reduce the president’s power on the same day as the early presidential election, highly likely slated for June 3.

Rep. Kwon Young-se, the People Power party’s leader, said the public consensus on reforming the country’s power structure was ripe in the wake of the impeachment crisis.

“We have witnessed the risks of a president having all the powers of the state,” Kwon said, alluding to former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s imposition of martial law in December last year.

But Rep. Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party chair remains convinced that the Yoon’s “insurrection” is still ongoing, and countering it should take priority.

Lee, who has a clear lead in the polls for to be the next president, said that while amending the Constitution and developing democracy were important, “putting an end to Yoon Suk Yeol’s insurrection should come first.”

“I think we all recognize the necessity of having a revised Constitution. But right now, nothing takes precedence over the task of stopping Yoon’s bid to destroy democracy,” Lee said.

This has to be the lamest excuse that Lee could come up with because Yoon has had no power for months and was officially removed from office last week. There is no more Yoon to oppose.

We all know the real reason that Lee now is uninterested in limitiing Presidential powers now that Yoon is gone:

A People Power Party lawmaker on the Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee, the Democratic Party, thinking it has a better chance at winning the coming election, might be less willing to accept a constitutional amendment that would take away some of the president’s powers.

“Lee Jae-myung himself has spoken on the need for constitutional reform several times in the past. But now with the presidency in sight, he would be less willing to embrace a reform plan that could limit his powers if he is elected,” he said.

You can read more at the link.

Appeasement of North Korea is what one analyst expects and the Korean left’s track record on this issue shows this will likely come true:

Sung-Yoon Lee, a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., said Yoon’s removal “virtually enthrones” Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung as the likely next president. Lee, who has not formally announced a run for the presidency, faced Yoon in the 2022 election.

In December, he famously scaled a wall at the National Assembly to block Yoon’s martial law decree. Yoon defended his decision, accusing the Democrats of obstructing legislation and conducting politically motivated investigations of government appointees. “If Lee Jae-myung or another [Democratic Party] politician takes power, we can anticipate big changes — mostly for the worse for South Korea’s national security and its alliance with the U.S., based on the ignoble record on North Korea policy …,” Sung-Yoon Lee told Stars and Stripes by email Friday. (…..)

“Politicians are prone to switching colors on various issues,” Sung-Yoon Lee said. “But Lee Jae-myung and his fellow lawmakers are united and unswerving when it comes to appeasing Kim …”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It is a good day for Lee Jae-myung who many consider the front runner to be the next president of Korea:

An appeals court on Wednesday acquitted opposition leader Lee Jae-myung of lying as a presidential candidate during the 2022 election, overturning a lower court’s sentence of a suspended prison term.

The decision by the Seoul High Court removed a major legal hurdle for Lee, as a suspended prison term, if finalized, would have stripped him of his parliamentary seat and barred him from running in the next presidential election.

The appellate ruling can still be overturned by the Supreme Court.

Yonhap

First of all the law to prosecute politicians for lying seems like one that can be easily weaponized by the political opposition. With that said here is what Lee was accused of lying about:

During the initial trial, the opposition leader was found guilty of lying during a media interview in December 2021 that he did not play golf with the late Kim Moon-ki, a former executive of Seongnam Development Corp., which was behind a corruption-ridden development project in Seongnam, south of Seoul, when Lee was the city’s mayor.

Lee was also found guilty of lying during a parliamentary audit of the Gyeonggi provincial government in October 2021 that he was under pressure from the land ministry to rezone the former site of the Korea Food Research Institute in Seongnam.

The site was later developed into apartment complexes by a private developer, and allegations were raised that Lee rezoned the land to give preferential treatment to the company.

In November, the lower court sentenced Lee to one year in prison, suspended for two years, for making false statements in violation of the Public Official Election Act.

In reversing that decision, however, the Seoul High Court said none of the four remarks Lee made during the campaign about allegedly not knowing Kim qualified as false statements. That included the remark about golf.

“He cannot be considered to have lied that they did not play golf, and it is difficult to recognize the remark as false,” the appeals court said.

On the alleged pressure from the land ministry, the court acknowledged that Lee “came under pressure from various angles.”

“His remark that he was threatened with charges of dereliction of duty could be an exaggerated expression of the considerable pressure he felt at the time, but it is difficult to recognize as false,” the court said.

From this article to me it is unclear whether he played golf with Kim Moon-ki and instead of lying about the pressure from the land ministry the appeals court believes he was just exaggerating. That is the area of this law that can be easily weaponized. Politicians exaggerate and bend the truth all the time. Should they be prosecuted everytime they do this?

They aren’t just coming after conservative populists in America. They’re coming after us across the world.

WATCH as Ambassador Morse Tan describes the political persecution against South Korean President Yoon:

“In South Korea, you have a coup in process…the person who wants… pic.twitter.com/cuofUABX4m

— CPAC (@CPAC) February 26, 2025

Imagine if American politicians could be jailed for lying to the public? The U.S. wouldn’t have a government:

Prosecutors on Wednesday demanded a two-year prison term for opposition leader Lee Jae-myung on charges of lying as a presidential candidate during the 2022 election.

Lee of the Democratic Party (DP) is considered the presidential frontrunner in the event President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment is upheld, but confirmation of his lower court sentence of one year in prison, suspended for two years, would bar him from running in the next presidential election in 2027.

The opposition leader is accused of lying during a media interview in December 2021 that he did not know the late Kim Moon-ki, a former executive of Seongnam Development Corp., which was behind a corruption-ridden development project in Seongnam, south of Seoul, when Lee was the city’s mayor.

During the final hearing of his appellate trial in the day, the prosecution said Lee deserves “a heavy punishment for distorting voters’ choices by telling a lie.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.