'Late Kim Moon-gi Unknown' Lee Jae-myung's Side Requests Kim Yong as Witness to the Court

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is attending the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly on the 21st and delivering opening remarks. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] It has been confirmed that the camp of Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, who was indicted for making false statements claiming he did not know the late Kim Moon-gi, former Head of Development Division 1 at Seongnam Urban Development Corporation during his tenure as mayor, requested to call Kim Yong, Deputy Director of the Democratic Research Institute and one of his closest aides, as a witness.

On the 22nd, the Criminal Division 34 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Kang Gyutae) held the second pretrial hearing for Lee, who was indicted on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act. The pretrial hearing is a procedure to hear opinions from both the prosecution and defense and to establish plans for evidence admission and proof, and the defendant is not required to attend.

On that day, the prosecutor asked Lee’s side, "Please clearly state whether you acknowledge the facts stated in the indictment," and "Do you agree or disagree that you played golf with former Director Kim?" The prosecutor added, "The indictment is based on the aspect that the defendant denies the very act of interaction by claiming he did not know Director Kim during his mayoral tenure, beyond the question of whether he remembers him or not," and said, "This is sufficiently stated in the indictment."

On the other hand, the defense argued, "The acts must be specified to exercise the right to defense," and "It is not possible to constitute all facts that might be included in that person’s words as acts." The defense further pointed out, "(The prosecution) seems to mean 'the whole must be considered,' interpreting what the individual said to infer and extract various facts and indicting them as acts, but it is unclear whether such an indictment can exist."

The prosecutor mentioned that Lee’s side intends to call Deputy Director Kim and a secretary who traveled to Australia together as witnesses, and said, "We will also disclose whether we will apply to call them as prosecution witnesses and our plan for proof." The court plans to hold the third pretrial hearing on the 20th of next month.

Kim, a key figure in the Daejang-dong development project allegations, was found dead in the Seongnam Urban Development Corporation office on December 21 last year while under investigation by the prosecution. Lee, who was the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, was indicted on charges of publicly making false statements about Kim the next day during a broadcast interview, saying, "He was a subordinate staff member, so I did not know him during my tenure as mayor."

Whether Lee knew former Director 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 on major issues of the corporation, including the Daejang-dong development project, in the Seongnam mayor’s office.

Lee was also indicted on charges of making false statements regarding the 'Baekhyeon-dong preferential treatment allegations.' On October 20 last year, during the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee’s audit of Gyeonggi Province, he made false statements about the Baekhyeon-dong Korea Food Research Institute site’s land-use change preferential treatment allegations, saying, "The Ministry of Land 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 it was unacceptable for Seongnam City to gain billions of won in profit through the land-use change, the city decided to secure some profit and attract office facilities, but the Ministry of Land threatened to accuse us of dereliction of duty." However, the prosecution’s view is that Seongnam City never received a land-use change request from the Ministry of Land and that it was the city’s own decision.

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