4th Death Associated with Lawmaker Lee Jae-myung’s Scandals

2022-8-3, Tara O

Sergeant Major (retired) Kim Hyun-wook (김현욱) was found dead in his home, a low-rise condo (“villa”) in Yongtong District, Suwon, Gyeonggi Province on July 26, 2022, after being investigated by the police in connection with one of many scandals related to the Democratic Party’s (Deobureo Minjoo Party) lawmaker Lee Jae-myung, a powerful figure.  Lee Jae-myung was the mayor of Seongnam (city next to Seoul) from 2010 to 2018, and the governor of Gyeonggi Province from July 2018 to late October 2021, when he became the presidential candidate for the Democratic Party of Korea for the election on March 9, 2022. He is currently a National Assemblyman, and is running to be the leader of his party.

Kim Hyun-wook was questioned by the police as the key witness in the criminal case of Kim Hye-kyung (김혜경), the wife of Lee Jae-myung.  Kim Hye-kyung is suspected of using Gyeonggi Province government credit cards for personal use through Bae So-hyeon (배소현).  Bae So-hyeon is a long-time personal assistant to both Kim Hye-kyung and Lee Jae-myung.  As Lee Jae-myung moved from the mayor of Seongnam to the governor of Gyeonggi Province, Bae was made a government employee while working for him.  The case involved Bae So-hyun in the Gyeonggi Province executive office, who instructed Kim Hyun-wook to use the government credit card to make purchases of take-out food and others to be delivered to the residence of Kim Hye-kyung and Lee Jae-myung on numerous occasions.   Due to the limit of ₩120,000 (~$100) on the government credit card for each transaction, larger amount purchases were charged to Kim’s personal credit card first to get the goods, then the transaction was immediately cancelled, and the total sum was broken down into amounts less than the limit, and charged to the government credit card.  Given his role, Kim Hyu-kyung was not just any witness, but in reality, a key witness.

This marks the fourth witness in the last 8 months to have died under suspicious circumstances during investigations into scandals involving Lee Jae-Myung.  The other 3 witnesses related to Lee Jae-myung’s other corruption and bribery scandals found dead are: 

• Yoo Han-ki (유한기), found dead on December 10, 2021
• Kim Moon-gi (김문기), December 21, 2021
• Lee Byung-chul (이병철), January 11, 2022

The deaths of Yoo Han-ki, Kim Moon-gi, and Lee Byung-chul occurred during the presidential election campaign, when Lee Jae-myung was running for president of South Korea (election on March 9, 2022).  On December 10, 2021, the date that Yoo Han-ki (another key witness in the investigations) was found dead, Lee Byung-chul indicated fear for his life when he wrote on social media “Although my current life is ruined, I absolutely have no thoughts about committing suicide. I want to see my daughter and son get married.” 

Yoo Han-ki and Kim Moon-gi were witnesses in a $1 billion corruption case involving a Seongnam City-sponsored housing development project in Daejangdong neighborhood.  Lee Byung-chul was the key witness for Lee Jae-myung’s proxy payments to the legal team that defended him in a case when he was the mayor of Seongnam City and was accused of abusing his authority in order to put his own brother in a psychiatric hospital after his brother criticized him.

From 2009-2018, Sergeant Major Kim Hyun-wook was the Defense Security Command’s (DSC) (renamed Defense Security Services Command under Moon Jae-in) liaison to Seongnam City handling intelligence matters.  Kim retired in 2018, and worked as a military contractor for Seongnam.  Starting December 2020, Kim was appointed as a Non-Executive Director of the Gyeonggi Province Institute for the Promotion of Economic Science.  He also worked for Bae So-hyun in the Gyeonggi Province governor’s executive office.

The below shows Bae So-hyun with Lee Jae-myung and Kim Hye-kyung at Bae’s wedding in 2016.

It turned out that the owner of the condo where Kim Hyun-wook’s dead body was found was Bae So-hyeon, and she frequently was seen at the condo.

When asked about the death of Kim Hyun-wook, Lee Jae-myung said, “what does that have to do with Lee Jae-myung?” (referring to himself as a 3^rd person) and flatly and coldly denied knowing Kim.  Since then, photos of Lee Jae-myung and Kim Hyun-wook have surfaced. The below is a photo from a trip to the DMZ with the Seongnam City Veterans Association on May 15, 2015.

Seongnam City sponsored quarterly Integrated Defense Council (IDC) (통합방위협의회) meetings, in which Lee Jae-myung was the IDC chairman. The members include liaisons from the National Intelligence Service (NIS), Defense Security Command (DSC)’s Seongnam region, Chairman of the Seongnam City Council, the Police Chief of Seongnam, and the Fire Chief of Seongnam.  Kim Hun-wook attended as the DSC liaison.  The photo below shows Lee Jae-myung speaking while Kim Hyun-wook clapping at one of the IDC meetings on December 18, 2014.

Additionally, it was revealed that Kim Hyun-wook was Kim Hye-kyung’s driver.  Lee Jae-myung’s camp submitted to the National Election Commission the political expenditure report covering July to October 2021 period.  In the expense report Kim’s name was listed as the spouse’s driver who was paid ₩15,000,000 (~$13,000).

Lee Jae-myung likely to run for president again in 2027

Lee Jae-myung ran for president in 2017 and took a pro-China stance.  He told the Chinese state media CCTV in 2017 that he would renege on the U.S. THAAD (Theater High Altitude Area Defense) deployment to Korea, which is for the defense of Korea against North Korean missiles.  He has also pursued pro-North Korea policies, such as sending the police to arrest defector groups for sending leaflets to North Korea. Lee has documented ties to gangsters, see here.  

Lee swiftly conceded the presidential election in March 2022, even prior to Yoon declaring victory (which is strange in Korean politics).  He lost by .7%, a razor thin margin.  As the investigations into his corruption and bribery scandals is occurring (although sometimes no movement in some cases), Lee Jae-myung decided to run to be a lawmaker for Gyeyang-gu eul district in Incheon.  Song Young-gil of the Democratic Party of Korea, who had been the party leader, was already a lawmaker for that district.  It appears that Song pre-emptively gave up his seat, so that Lee Jae-myung could run in the regional election on June 1, 2022 in Song’s district, an odd move.  Instead, Song ran for Seoul Mayor, and lost.  The speculation was that Lee Jae-myung ran in order to become a lawmaker to avoid or deter being investigated further, using the party as protection.

Despite low poll numbers that reflected less support in the district, Lee won and became a lawmaker.  Currently, Lee Jae-myung is running to be the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, which would provide even greater protection against investigations.  See here for the sex bribe scandals of former leaders of Democratic Party of Korea and no repercussions.  If Lee is found guilty in any of the numerous cases, it would temporarily prevent him from running for office, including in the next presidential election, which will be in less than 5 years.  If not, Lee would likely run again for president for the 3^rd time in 2027.