Seol Hoon "Lee Jae-myung's Judicial Risk Materializes... This Is Why I Advised Against Running"

"Foreseen This Situation... Expected Prosecution to Attack the Entire Party"
"No Groundless Claim of 800 Million Won... But It Probably Was Not Used for Presidential Election Funds"
"Prosecution's Unreasonable Claim"

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] On the 20th, Seol Hoon, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, commented on the arrest of Kim Yong, deputy director of the Democratic Research Institute and a close aide to Lee Jae-myung, the party leader, saying, "I believe there must have been concrete circumstances for the arrest warrant to be issued," and added, "I also think it is likely that money was exchanged between Deputy Director Kim and former Chief Yoo Dong-gyu."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the same day, Seol appeared on CBS Radio's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' and said, "There is no way an unfounded claim of 800 million won would arise," expressing his view.

Seol supported former leader Lee Nak-yeon during last year's Democratic Party presidential primary and opposed Lee Jae-myung's bid for party leadership at this year's party convention, citing 'judicial risks' as the reason.

When asked by the host whether he believes Lee Jae-myung's judicial risks are materializing, Seol replied, "Yes," and said, "I met with the leader directly and told him there was a possibility of various issues arising, so the party should take charge and prevent him from running as the leader. I had foreseen this kind of situation."

Seol added, "Regardless of the facts, I believed the prosecution would not just leave it alone. I thought they would attack the entire party."

Regarding the possibility that the prosecution might have persuaded former Chief Yoo, Seol said, "If the situation becomes one-sided like that, there would be no choice but to reach some compromise with the prosecution."

However, even if it is true that former Chief Yoo delivered funds to Deputy Director Kim, Seol viewed whether the 800 million won was used as presidential campaign funds as a separate issue.

He explained, "An individual might have disposed of it in the middle, or part of it might have gone into campaign activities, but whether that should be considered campaign funds is a different matter. If Yoo Dong-gyu and Kim Yong said this was for their personal activity expenses, then it cannot be regarded as campaign funds. It can only be seen as personal embezzlement in the middle."

He further argued that if the funds had been used as campaign funds, an investigation into the party leader could have taken place, but he believes the funds were not used for the campaign.

Seol emphasized, "There were government subsidies and party membership fees, so there was no situation where they had to pull in money because they were short. Therefore, there is absolutely no possibility that they discussed how to use the 800 million won after receiving it. The claim that it was campaign funds is an unreasonable assertion by the prosecution."

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