Jeong Seong-ho: "No Direct Evidence That Election Funds Were Delivered to Kim Yong"

"There's No Secret in Politics, It's the Established Truth"
"Funds Transferred Through Several Steps? Unbelievable"

Jeong Seong-ho, member of the Democratic Party of Korea. [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Juhee] Jeong Seong-ho, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, commented on the allegations of illegal presidential election funds involving Lee Jae-myung, saying, "Isn't this a (prosecutor's) fabricated investigation?" and "There is no direct evidence that the funds were delivered to Kim Yong (Deputy Director of the Democratic Research Institute)."

On the 25th, Jeong appeared on MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' and said, "When receiving political funds, would the person giving the money be separate from the person delivering it through several intermediaries?" He added, "It is generally accepted that there are almost no secrets in politics, so this is very risky."

He stated, "The claim is that the money made by Nam Wook (owner of Cheonhwa Dongin No. 4) was delivered to Kim Yong through Lee Mo, Jeong Mo, and Yoo Dong-gyu (former Planning Director of Seongnam Urban Development Corporation), but there is no direct evidence," and added, "(The prosecution's investigation) seems to have pieced things together after understanding various timings and situations." He continued, "What the public doubts is how the Daejang-dong project unfolded, how many profits were made there, and to whom those profits ultimately belonged," criticizing, "It has truly shifted from the side issues to an investigation of presidential election funds."

Jeong explained, "People like Kim Yong or Jeong Jin-sang (Chief of Political Coordination at the Democratic Party Representative Office) played practical roles as Lee Jae-myung was the mayor of Seongnam, governor of Gyeonggi Province, and presidential candidate. The overall decision-making of the election camp was done by members of the National Assembly, including myself." He argued, "Therefore, if money was given, wouldn't it have been given to the members of the National Assembly? That way, even if it was election funds, there would be some justification," asserting that Deputy Director Kim likely did not receive illegal funds.

Jeong continued, "During the presidential or primary election process, candidate Lee Jae-myung repeatedly stated that he must never accept illegal funds," emphasizing, "Even when Lee was mayor of Seongnam, he was subjected to numerous searches and account tracking, so it is hard to believe he would have done such things."

Kim Yong, a close aide of Lee, was arrested on the 22nd on charges of violating the Political Funds Act for allegedly conspiring with Yoo Dong-gyu, former Planning Director of Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, and lawyer Jeong Min-yong (former head of Strategic Business at Seongnam Urban Development Corporation) to receive illegal political funds amounting to 847 million KRW from lawyer Nam Wook between April and August last year. Kim denies the charges related to this case.

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