SOUTH KOREA Seoul, major corruption arrest challenges opposition leader

Businessman Kim Seong-tae – extradited from Thailand – is accused of doing business in North Korea during the thaw period, under the protection of the local authorities of Gyeonggi province, whose governor was the current Democratic leader Lee Jae-myung. For his part, he replies that it is a judicial investigation for political purposes.

Seoul () – Former South Korean underwear magnate Kim Seong-tae (head of the Ssangbangwool group until 2021) was repatriated to South Korea this week after being arrested a few days ago in Thailand. He had taken refuge there last year to escape the investigations that are being carried out against him in Seoul, and that implicate him in multiple cases of corruption. Among them, the highest level ones, such as the alleged funds transferred to North Korea and the payment of opposition leader Lee Jae-myung’s legal fees.

On Tuesday, Kim was immediately transferred to the Suwon Judicial Bureau, which handles the investigation into the Democratic leader. Although the former executive claimed that he did not know Lee Jae-myung at all, some testimonials reported otherwise. Another former Ssangbangwool executive would have confirmed to the news agency yonhap that Kim and Lee had a close relationship. In addition, during a hearing held in Suwon, the same former general secretary of Lee confirmed the existence of this relationship.

According to the researchers in 2018, Ssangbangwool, then under the direction of Kim, reportedly paid fees of about $241,000 to the lawyer defending Lee in a trial for alleged violations of electoral law. Added to these accusations are those of corruption of some high-ranking officials in the province of Gyeonggi, the most populous in the country. In 2019, as international tensions eased on the Korean peninsula, Kim had obtained permission from the province to start mining activities in North Korea, and Kim is suspected of bribing Gyeonggi officials to get favorable treatment: the deputy governor of then he was arrested in September of last year for this cause.

The central fact is that at that time, between 2018 and 2021, the governor of Gyeonggi was Lee Jae-myung himself. Therefore, determining the existence (and the eventual nature) of a personal relationship between Lee and Kim is a central question in the ongoing investigation, which in such a case would link the opposition leader to an extensive network of corruption.

In addition, it is not ruled out that the matter between Ssangbangwool and Lee is part of a much broader panorama in which the opposition leader is accused of being at the center of a wide network of illicit relationships with the business world. Hanging over his head are two other trials for alleged corruption cases dating back to when he was mayor of Seongnam, one of Gyeonggi’s major cities. read appeared in court last week and will have to re-introduce at the end of the month.

For his part, the leader of the democrats protests against the accusation of the opposition leader, a fact unknown since the end of the dictatorship in the country, and declares himself the victim of a judicial process conceived for political purposes.