The Democratic Party Launches Full-Scale Offensive After Releasing ‘Lee Jae-myung Recording’... Yoo Sang-beom Says “Lee Could Face Imprisonment”

Yu: "Decisive Evidence of Lee's Perjury Coaching Emerges"
Kim Ki-hyun: "Lee Personally Abuses the National Assembly"

The People Power Party is highlighting the judicial risks of Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, by releasing a recording that contains allegations he attempted to coach key witnesses to commit perjury while on trial for violating the Public Official Election Act. Until now, the People Power Party, which had been helplessly suffering from the dominant opposition party's unilateral actions, plans to continue its aggressive offensive to regain control of the political situation lost to the opposition.

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is attending the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly on the 17th. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

Yoo Sang-beom, chairman of the People Power Party's Special Committee to Prevent Judicial Destruction, claimed on the 18th that the audio file of Lee Jae-myung’s alleged perjury coaching is “decisive evidence with a high possibility of leading to a guilty verdict.”

Yoo appeared on CBS Radio’s ‘Kim Hyun-jung’s News Show’ that day and said, “This is a case where the party directly asked the person who committed perjury to testify that the statements were made with political motives,” agreeing with the host’s question about whether this constitutes a violation of the election law.

He added, “At this level, it is more likely to result in imprisonment rather than just a fine,” and said, “Even if it’s not a prison sentence that leads to incarceration, I think a suspended sentence with imprisonment could be handed down.”

Kim Ki-hyun, a member of the People Power Party, posted on his Facebook that “Yesterday, an audio recording was released in connection with the prosecutor impersonation case, in which Lee Jae-myung demanded a key witness to testify favorably for him,” and said, “Lee explained that he ‘asked for truthful testimony,’ but Mr. Kim (the witness) confessed that he perjured himself following Lee’s request.”

He continued, “Despite this, Lee denies all charges and even harshly criticizes the media reporting on this as ‘the prosecution’s lapdog.’ His strong supporter group, the ‘Gaeddal’ (dog daughters), is conducting a coordinated signature campaign to impeach the judges handling the North Korea remittance case, and the floor leader is making unreasonable claims such as ‘judges should also be elected,’” criticizing them.

He further stated, “Lee’s lies, hypocrisy, and his below-common-sense understanding of the law that crosses dangerous lines are bizarre scenes not seen in a normal democratic party of a free democratic country,” and argued, “Lee Jae-myung, who abuses the authority of the National Assembly and political parties as personal property, is an outdated figure who should be expelled from politics.”

The previous day, Park Jung-hoon, a member of the People Power Party, held a press conference at the National Assembly and released audio material containing conversations between Lee and Kim Jin-sung, one of the key witnesses in the perjury coaching trial, claiming it was “clear perjury coaching.” The approximately four-minute recording, edited from three calls, was also shown at the People Power Party’s parliamentary meeting that day.

Lee was indicted in October last year on charges of repeatedly contacting Kim Jin-sung, who was then the secretary to Kim Byung-ryang, mayor of Seongnam, in December 2018 during Lee’s tenure as governor of Gyeonggi Province, asking him to commit perjury in the election law trial related to the ‘prosecutor impersonation case.’ Kim confessed in Lee’s trial that he had committed perjury.

Meanwhile, the released recording is reported to have played a decisive role in the prosecution’s decision to indict. In the recording, Lee tells Kim, “Mainly, I was the target, and this case had a very political background. If you could talk about that, it would be helpful,” and “I will send you a brief of the defense. Since that was our argument at the time, please try to recall it.”