Lee Jae-myung's 'North Korea Remittance' Case Heard by Judge Lee Hwa-young... Motion to Consolidate Rejected

The application by former Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung to have the trial of the 'illegal remittance to North Korea' case, assigned to the Criminal Division 11 of Suwon District Court (presiding judge Shin Jin-woo), heard together with another ongoing case at the Seoul Central District Court was dismissed.

Presiding Judge Shin Jin-woo, having previously presided over the case involving former Gyeonggi Province Peace Deputy Governor Lee Hwa-young's remittance to North Korea charges (violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act) for 1 year and 8 months, is expected to expedite the trial of former leader Lee’s case, which is based on the same facts, due to his high level of understanding of the matter.

Former leader of the Democratic Party, Lee Jae-myung, is declaring his candidacy for party leader at the central party office in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 10th. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

On the 15th, the Supreme Court’s First Division (Chief Justice Seo Kyung-hwan) dismissed former leader Lee’s application to have his illegal remittance to North Korea case tried at the Seoul Central District Court through a 'consolidation of territorial jurisdiction' request. In cases of consolidation of territorial jurisdiction, only a decision of 'approval' or 'dismissal' is made, and the reasons for the decision are not separately stated in the ruling.

Earlier, on the 12th of last month, the Criminal Division 6 of Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office (Chief Prosecutor Seo Hyun-wook) indicted former leader Lee on charges including bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, violation of the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act, and violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, related to the 'Ssangbangwool illegal remittance to North Korea' allegations.

Subsequently, through Suwon District Court’s automatic case assignment system, former leader Lee’s remittance to North Korea case was assigned to the Criminal Division 11 of Suwon District Court, which had previously sentenced former Gyeonggi Province Deputy Governor Lee to 9 years and 6 months imprisonment and a fine of 250 million KRW.

On the 7th of last month, the court found former Deputy Governor Lee guilty of conspiring with Bang Yong-chul, Vice Chairman of Ssangbangwool, and others to have Ssangbangwool Group employees pay the costs of Gyeonggi Province’s smart farm project by exporting a total of approximately USD 1.64 million abroad without reporting it to the customs authorities.

Furthermore, regarding the USD 2 million transferred by Ssangbangwool to North Korea, the court recognized it as a payment delivered to the North Korean authorities in connection with the Gyeonggi Province Governor’s visit to North Korea, thereby acknowledging that Ssangbangwool covered former leader Lee’s travel expenses for the North Korea visit.

Therefore, legal circles anticipate that unless it is proven that former leader Lee, during his tenure as Gyeonggi Province Governor, was completely unaware of this remittance process from former Deputy Governor Lee, it will be difficult for him to escape criminal responsibility as the direct superior of the former Deputy Governor and the person who appointed him as Peace Deputy Governor.

Considering this situation, former leader Lee applied to the Supreme Court on the 1st to consolidate the trials of the Daejang-dong, Seongnam FC, and Baekhyeon-dong development preferential treatment allegations currently underway at the Seoul Central District Court with the remittance to North Korea case assigned to Suwon District Court. However, the Supreme Court did not accept his application.

Article 6 of the Criminal Procedure Act (Consolidation of Territorial Jurisdiction) stipulates that "when multiple related cases with different territorial jurisdictions are pending in different courts, the common immediate higher court may, upon application by the prosecutor or defendant, decide to have one court conduct a consolidated trial."

Accordingly, the Supreme Court, as the common higher court for both the Seoul Central District Court and Suwon District Court, made the decision on whether to consolidate the trials.

With the Supreme Court’s unfavorable ruling for former leader Lee on this day, strong backlash from the Democratic Party and Lee’s supporters against the judiciary is expected.