Former Lieutenant Governor Lee Hwa-young Gave $8 Million to North Korea, Violating Sanctions

2024-7-18, Tara O

On June 7, 2024, the court sentenced the former Lieutenant Governor of Gyeonggi Province, Lee Hwa-young (이화영) (Democratic Party of Korea, DPK), to 9 ½ years in prison for illegally transferring $8 million to North Korea in 2019.  The court also found him guilty of receiving illicit political funds of ₩334 million ($244,000) from Ssangbangwool, an underwear company.

Lee Hwa-young was charged on October 22, 2022 with violating the National Exchange Transaction Act, bribery under the Act on Aggravated Punishment for Specified Crimes, violating the Political Funds Act, and destroying evidence.  He was also fined ₩250 million and an additional fee of ₩325.95 million.

Lee Jae-myung (Left) and Lee Hwa-young (Right)

Prosecutors charged that Lee Hwa-young colluded with Kim Seong-tae, former Chairman of Ssangbangwool, an underwear company, to smuggle $8 million to China and paid Kim Yong-chol (김영철), chairman of the Asia-Pacific Committee of Korea (조선아태위) and vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Korean Workers’ Party.  The prosecutor charged that the $3 million was for the then-Governor of Gyeonggi Province Lee Jae-myung’s visit to North Korea to meet with Kim Jong-un and $5 million was for a “smart farm” project that the Gyeonggi Provincial government promised to North Korea.  Neither of these reasons can circumvent the sanctions against North Korea.

Lee Jae-myung

At the court, Lee Hwa-young admitted smuggling $2.3 million of the $8 million for Lee Jae-myung to visit North Korea, as Lee was getting ready to run for president.  A visit to North Korea was seen as a boost to Lee’s presidential bid.  In 2022, Lee Jae-myung, DPK’s candidate, ran for president, but lost to Yoon Suk-yeol.  Lee then ran for the National Assembly for a seat yielded by Song Young-gil, and later became the leader of the DPK.

Lee Jae-myung is under suspicion for various corruption and bribery cases, including the $1 billion Daejang housing development project (Daejang-dong-gate) and bribery from Seongnam FC (soccer club) while he was the mayor of Seongnam.  Six people, including key witnesses, related to the cases have mysteriously died, with the latest one a former media executive, whose dead body was found in a field in North Chungcheong Province on June 29, 2024.

Lee Jae-myung’s party, the Democratic Party of Korea, responded swiftly to Lee Hwa-young’s guilty verdict.  It proposed the impeachment of four incumbent prosecutors.