Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung is speaking at the 1st meeting of the Special Committee for COVID-19 Crisis Response held at the central party office in Yeouido, Seoul, on the morning of the 17th. / Photo by Yonhap News
[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, clarified regarding allegations of his son's involvement in prostitution, stating, "I have also checked, and there is no fact of prostitution."
On the morning of the 17th, after finishing a meeting at the party office in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, Lee was asked by a reporter, "There are suspicions of prostitution based on your son's massage parlor reviews." He replied, "It is something I cannot know for sure, but since he swears he did not, as a parent, I have no choice but to believe him."
According to media reports on the previous day (the 16th), Lee's son posted a review of a massage parlor on an online poker community site bulletin board in March last year. The son, Mr. Lee, wrote a post titled "Damn, I got internal injuries," including comments such as "They didn't keep the massage time, it's terrible."
The establishment mentioned by Lee's son in the post is presumed to be a pseudo-sexual service business located in Jeongja-dong, Seongnam-si. The post has since been deleted and is no longer accessible.
Meanwhile, Lee's son is also under suspicion of habitual gambling. On the same day (the 16th), a media outlet raised allegations of illegal gambling based on about 200 posts made by a person presumed to be Lee's son on an online poker community website from January 2019 to July last year.
In response, Lee issued a statement saying, "The person who joined the card game site mentioned in the media reports and posted the writings is indeed my son," adding, "It seems my son was tempted for a certain period." He continued, "As a father, I bow my head and apologize together with my son to those who were disappointed by my son's disgraceful behavior."
He also explained, "As far as I know, he has bank debt," implying that the source of funds itself is not problematic. He said, "(My son) seems to have lost within about 10 million won," adding, "He apparently withdrew several hundred thousand won at a time to buy cyber money, but the period was quite long, and the total loss does not seem to have reached 10 million won."
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