Worked Alongside President, Gave Yoo 90 Points, Lee Seok-ki Events at Agency Venue... Lee Yong-cheol Faces Rocky Confirmation Hearing

"Saegil" Ties Raise Questions About Neutrality
Controversies from His Time in Seongnam
Justice Minister Nominee Lee Yong-cheol
Faces a Rocky Confirmation Hearing Ahead

Various allegations are emerging simultaneously surrounding Lee Yong-cheol, the nominee for justice minister. With a key figure from the “Seongnam circle,” who has close ties to President Lee Jae-myung, nominated to head the Justice Ministry, questions have surfaced ranging from the possibility of dropping charges in cases involving the president to allegations from Lee’s time as head of the Seongnam Industry Promotion Agency.

According to legal circles on Friday, the biggest potential flashpoint among the issues being examined in connection with Lee is his close relationship with the president. Lee previously worked as a managing partner at Saegil, a Seongnam-based law firm where the president had also worked. In 2010, Lee served on the transition committee for the Seongnam mayor’s office before becoming CEO of the Seongnam Industry Promotion Agency. In 2013, Saegil also represented Kim Hyun-ji, then a close aide to Lee and now the first deputy director of the Presidential Office, in a defamation case. Under the structure of the Special Prosecutor Act on Fabricated Indictments, which recently passed the National Assembly, the justice minister could direct the dropping of charges through the prosecutor general. The opposition has therefore stepped up its attacks on Lee, calling him a “justice minister meant to shield the president.”

Lee’s record as head of an agency under Seongnam City is also under scrutiny. The key issue is his connection to Yoo Dong-gyu, former director of the Seongnam Development Corporation. In 2010, Lee served on the executive recommendation committee of the Facilities Management Corporation and gave Yoo 90 points, far more than the 76 points given to his competitor, thereby playing a role in Yoo’s appointment. In particular, official records show that, contrary to Lee’s explanation that he “knew almost nothing about the Daejang-dong project,” he directly referred to a “study of industrial development plans for Daejang-dong and Wirye” in a 2011 organizational restructuring plan and in remarks to the city council in 2014, when he was head of the agency. This has sparked controversy over whether he gave a false explanation. The controversy has also escalated into a dispute over his character after Yoo alleged that they had played poker together at least three times, with stakes of several million won.

Questions have also been raised over political bias and conflicts of interest in the agency’s operations. It has been confirmed that events supporting former Unified Progressive Party lawmaker Lee Seok-ki and calling for his release were held several times in a building owned by Seongnam City and operated by the agency, where the use of facilities for political purposes is strictly prohibited. Lee also faces controversy over “self-assignment” after assigning a damages lawsuit against an agency employee to Saegil, the law firm he had headed. In addition, a joint venture that he supported establishing while serving concurrently as an outside director of a biotechnology company moved into Pangyo Techno Valley, an area the agency was developing.

Lee’s past record on public-service ethics and legal representation is also proving contentious. In 2004, while serving as a presidential secretary for legal affairs under the Roh Moo-hyun administration, he applied for compensation for the May 18 Democratization Movement, citing his detention during a student protest at a Seoul school; his application was rejected. He later pursued a lawsuit against the state all the way to the Supreme Court while serving as deputy chief of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, but lost. Critics also say his record of serving on the defense team for a death-row inmate who appealed his conviction in the 2003 “Yangpyeong Murder of Four Family Members” case and arguing that the investigation had involved coercion runs counter to public sentiment on justice.

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