The Ministry of Justice said on the 17th it will launch an inspection into allegations of a "salmon sashimi and soju party" involving former Gyeonggi Province Vice Governor for Peace Lee Hwa-young and former SSANGBANGWOOL Chairman Kim Seong-tae, who have been indicted on charges of SSANGBANGWOOL's illegal remittance to North Korea. When Lee exposed the allegation last year, the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office denied it. The ministry said it recently identified indications during its inquiry that the Suwon office's explanation differed from the facts.
In a news release that day, the Ministry of Justice said, "We confirmed that on May 17, 2023, in the video-recording room inside Prosecutor's Office Room 1313 at the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office, during a dinner of 'salmon rice bowl and salmon sushi' with co-defendants including Lee Hwa-young, Kim Seong-tae, and Bang Yong-cheol (former SSANGBANGWOOL vice chairman), as well as Prosecutor Park Sang-yong, Kim Seong-tae and others drank soju from paper cups."
It added, "There were multiple instances when outside lunch boxes and food were brought in while Kim Seong-tae was being questioned by prosecutors during his detention." It also said, "In spaces called the video-recording room and the storage room, co-defendants including Kim Seong-tae and Lee Hwa-young frequently gathered to talk." It continued, "We also determined it is possibly true that an SSANGBANGWOOL employee was stationed in Prosecutor's Office Room 1313 at the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office to attend to Kim Seong-tae, and that a sitting correctional officer protested inappropriate measures taken by Prosecutor Park Sang-yong during the questioning."
The SSANGBANGWOOL remittance-to-North-Korea case centers on allegations that SSANGBANGWOOL's side paid on behalf of North Korean officials the support funds for a smart farm project ($5 million) that Gyeonggi Province had promised to provide to the North, and the then-Gyeonggi governor Lee's trip-to-the-North expense ($3 million). Former Vice Governor Lee was indicted on charges including bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes and in June received a finalized sentence of seven years and eight months in prison. President Lee Jae-myung was indicted separately, and his first-instance trial at the Suwon District Court has been suspended.
The indictment of the president was largely influenced by former Vice Governor Lee's June 2023 statement that "in 2019, when he was Gyeonggi governor, I reported the remittance to the North to Lee." However, at a trial in Apr. last year, Lee abruptly claimed, "While trying to win me over, the prosecution condoned us drinking soju with the detained former chairman Kim Seong-tae in the storage room in front of the prosecutor's office." But the Supreme Court did not accept Lee's claim that he was coaxed with a drinking session.
After former Vice Governor Lee's revelation, the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office issued a news release refuting his claim. The office said, "Alcohol was never brought into the prosecution building, making drinking physically impossible, and there was absolutely no instance in which an SSANGBANGWOOL affiliate even brought in food." It also said, "The office (Room 1315) cited as the drinking location was never used as a dining space, and on June 30, 2023, the date on which drinking was alleged, meals were confirmed to have been taken at the detention center, a separate building, not in the prosecutor's office."
The Ministry of Justice said, "We became aware of indications that content investigated and announced by the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office in Apr. 2024 does not conform to the facts." It added, "Minister Jeong Seong-ho ordered the launch of an inspection into illegal or improper facts revealed by the fact-finding inquiry."