Lee Jae-myung Responds to 'Daejang-dong Allegations' Saying, "Rather Than Embezzlement, Please Change the Charge to Extortion"

Open Democratic Party-hosted Dialogue
"A Plan to Take Back from Thieves"
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[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] Lee Jae-myung, the ruling party's presidential candidate and Governor of Gyeonggi Province, responded jokingly on the 6th regarding the breach of trust allegations related to the Daejang-dong project in Seongnam City, saying, "It is not breach of trust but rather extortion or abuse of power."

During a discussion hosted by the Open Democratic Party that afternoon, Lee said, "Instead of breach of trust, the charge should be changed to extortion or abuse of power, and they should rather ask why I took more. Then I would feel the need to defend myself."

He explained, "It was a plan to take back from thieves. The rest of the internal planning was done by themselves," adding, "They called me a communist mayor. We agreed to proceed based on expected profits, but after two years, seeing signs of rising land prices, we reclaimed an additional 100 billion won, taking a total of 550 billion won. The 180 billion won profit came from the housing price surge in 2018."

He continued, "The basis for breach of trust is that the Seongnam Urban Development Corporation's working group ignored the opinion to reclaim part of the increased land value if it rose, but I never even received a report on that," emphasizing, "Logically, it doesn't make sense because I had already instructed to receive a fixed amount, and the public offering was conducted according to the instructions and planning policy."

Regarding claims that Yoo Dong-gyu, former Planning Director of Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, who was arrested on charges of bribery and breach of trust, is a close aide of Lee, he retorted, "Then is former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol a close aide of the president?"

He pointed out, "It is true that Director Yoo helped my election and was a mid-level executive due to his capabilities. However, he later resigned after serving as president of the Tourism Corporation. When he asked me to invest 38 billion won in a movie, I thought it was strange and refused," adding, "Can someone who completely left and is not even helping the campaign be called a close aide?"

Regarding former Prosecutor General Yoon, he said, "There are more negative expectations than positive ones," and added, "It is unfortunate that he seems to be eliminated early due to the 'king (王)' controversy. For our history to move forward even one step, we must prevent regression. In that respect, we must defeat (former Prosecutor General Yoon)."

When asked how he would create a chemical bond with supporters of former Democratic Party leader Lee Nak-yeon, he said, "It is not appropriate to speak hypothetically as no conclusion has been reached yet," but raised his voice, saying, "Who wins is the next issue; whoever becomes the final candidate must win representing one camp." Lee emphasized, "All candidates, all party members, and all supporters must unite," and stressed, "We must share and divide as much as possible with only 51% decision-making power to make it a victory for everyone."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.