Democratic Party: "Kim Yong Has Never Donated Political Funds to Lee Jae-myung for Presidential or Primary Elections"

"Kim Yong Donated 500,000 Won to Lee in the 2018 Gyeonggi Province Governor Election"

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, holds an emergency press conference at the National Assembly on the 21st. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] On the 21st, the Democratic Party of Korea stated that Representative Lee Jae-myung declared through Kim Yong, Deputy Director of the Democratic Research Institute, that "there is no fact of receiving illegal political funds."

The Democratic Party's Public Relations Office conveyed in a notice text message on the same day, "Representative Lee has never received even one won of illegal political funds, including during the presidential election."

Kim, considered a close aide of Representative Lee, was arrested by the prosecution on charges of receiving over 800 million won in illegal political funds during the last presidential election and is currently under a detention warrant request.

The Democratic Party added, "Even when broadening the scope to official political donations, Deputy Director Kim only donated 500,000 won to Representative Lee during the 2018 Gyeonggi Province governor election, and there is no fact of political fund contributions during the 2021-2022 presidential election and primary process."

At a press conference on the morning of the same day, Representative Lee proposed a "Daejang-dong special prosecutor" and fully denied the allegations surrounding himself and Deputy Director Kim regarding presidential election funds, stating, "I have not received illegal presidential election funds, nor even a single candy."

When asked by reporters whether he had ever received political or presidential election funds through Deputy Director Kim, he replied, "I am not sure if it was a formal donation within the legal scope," adding, "I have never received money that the law does not permit or that is improper. I have never received any personally."

He also instructed party officials, "Please check later if there is anything that might have been given as political funds."

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