Prosecutors raid Gyeonggi provincial gov’t offices over tycoon’s cash transfers to N. Korea

Prosecutors raided the Gyeonggi provincial government offices Wednesday over a former vice governor’s alleged involvement in a tycoon’s suspected cash remittances to North Korea.

Investigators from the Suwon District Prosecutors Office in Suwon, 34 kilometers south of Seoul, searched the provincial government’s southern and northern regional offices in Suwon and Uijeongbu, north of Seoul, respectively, to secure documents and materials suspected to be related to former Vice Gov. Lee Hwa-young and his former aides.

Lee, known previously as a confidant of Lee Jae-myung, the embattled opposition leader, was arrested in September and indicted the following month for taking bribes from underwear maker Ssangbangwool Group between 2018 and 2022.

The former vice governor has been separately under investigation on suspicion that he asked former Ssangbangwool Chairman Kim Seong-tae to pay US$5 million to North Korea in 2019 to help promote the province’s smart farm project in the North.

Indicting Kim on bribery, embezzlement and other charges early this month, prosecutors designated the former vice governor as an accomplice to the former chairman’s foreign currency smuggling charge allegedly linked to the North Korean remittances.

Kim has reportedly told prosecutors that he delivered at least $8 million to North Korea in 2019 to help promote Gyeonggi Province’s smart farm project and then Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung’s visit to the North.

In addition, Kim reportedly said that the cash remittances to the North were reported to Lee Jae-myung, now the chair of the main opposition Democratic Party, via Lee Hwa-young.

Both Lee Jae-myung and Lee Hwa-young have claimed they did not know about the alleged cash transfers by Kim.