Trial of Lee Jae-myung for false statements by late Kim Moon-ki and Baek Hyun-dong... Starts Today

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is attending the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly on the 17th and delivering an opening remark. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The first trial of Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, who was indicted for making false statements during the presidential election process, will be held on the 18th.

At 10:30 a.m. on the same day, the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 34 (Presiding Judge Kang Gyutae) will conduct the first pretrial hearing for Lee, who was charged with violating the Public Official Election Act.

During the pretrial hearing, the defendant’s position on the charges will be confirmed, and a plan for evidence investigation will be established in preparation for the formal trial. Unlike the trial, the defendant is not required to attend, so only Lee’s legal representatives are likely to appear. Lee has appointed lawyer Lee Seung-yeop (Judicial Research and Training Institute, Class 27).

Previously, Lee was indicted on the 8th of last month for making false statements during an interview with a broadcasting company on December 22 last year, when he was the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. He claimed that Kim Moon-gi, the late Head of Development Division 1 at Seongnam Urban Development Corporation and a key figure related to the Daejang-dong development project, was a subordinate employee whom he did not know during his tenure as mayor. Kim, a central figure in the Daejang-dong development scandal, was found dead in the Seongnam Urban Development Corporation office on December 21 last year while under prosecution investigation.

Whether Lee knew Kim is considered a crucial clue to identifying the so-called 'upper echelon' in the Daejang-dong case. The prosecution believes that Lee received multiple face-to-face reports from Kim regarding the Daejang-dong development project and other major issues of the corporation while in the Seongnam mayor’s office.

Lee is also accused of making false statements regarding the 'Baekhyeon-dong preferential treatment suspicion.' On October 20 last year, during the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee’s audit of Gyeonggi Province, he allegedly made false statements about the preferential treatment suspicion related to the land use change of the Korea Food Research Institute site in Baekhyeon-dong. He claimed, "The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport requested the land use change, and we had no choice but to comply under the Special Act on the Relocation of Public Institutions," and "Since Seongnam City could not accept gaining billions of won in profit through the land use change, the city decided to secure some profit and attract office facilities, but the Ministry threatened to accuse us of dereliction of duty." However, the prosecution’s view is that Seongnam City never received such a request from the Ministry and that the decision was made independently by the city.

If Lee is sentenced to imprisonment or fined more than 1 million won in the trial, he will lose his parliamentary seat and be disqualified from running for office for five years.

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