On the 14th, a prosecutor investigating the SSANGBANGWOOL illegal remittance to North Korea case claimed that "the attorney for former Gyeonggi Province Vice Governor for Peace Lee Hwa-young said the presidential secretary for the first executive office, Kim Hyun-ji, scolded him and he was replaced."
At the Ministry of Justice audit held at the National Assembly's The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee that day, People Power Party lawmaker Joo Jin-woo asked Park Sang-yong, then deputy chief prosecutor at the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office who led the remittance probe (now a professor at the Legal Research and Training Institute), "In the process of (the former vice governor) having attorney Seol Ju-wan resign and newly appointing attorney Kim Gwang-min, it is said that Kim Hyun-ji, then a top aide to Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, personally handled it. Is that true?"
Professor Park said, "Attorney Seol suddenly resigned, so when I asked (the reason), he said he had been heavily scolded over the phone by Deputy Minister Kim Hyun-ji and could no longer appear." He added, "Then proceedings went on without a next attorney, the questioning did not go well, and after that a more specific confession came out." At the time, Kim was an aide to President Lee, who was then a lawmaker.
The SSANGBANGWOOL illegal remittance suspicion is that SSANGBANGWOOL Group in 2019 covered a total of $8 million, including $5 million in smart farm support funds that Gyeonggi Province should have sent to North Korea and $3 million in expenses for then Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung's planned trip to North Korea. The former vice governor was identified as deeply involved and was indicted in Oct. 2022. In Jun., the Supreme Court finalized a sentence of seven years and eight months in prison on charges including bribery.
While in custody in Jun. 2023, the former vice governor told prosecutors to the effect that "I asked SSANGBANGWOOL to push for the Gyeonggi governor's trip to North Korea. I also reported this to Lee Jae-myung, who was then the Gyeonggi governor and the Democratic Party leader." At that time, the legal representative was attorney Seol Ju-wan, but Seol resigned three days later.
The following month, from prison, the former vice governor reversed the statement in a handwritten letter, saying, "I never asked SSANGBANGWOOL to cover Lee Jae-myung's trip-to-North-Korea expense, nor did I report this to Lee." Around this time, the legal representative changed to attorney Kim Gwang-min, a Gyeonggi Provincial Council member from the Democratic Party.
Rep. Joo said, "This case raises the issue of a co-conspirator relationship with President Lee Jae-myung," adding, "A top aide in a co-conspirator relationship scolding, pressing, and ordering the firing of an attorney for a person who is a co-conspirator is, in itself, destruction of evidence and subornation of perjury." He also said, "Deputy Minister Kim should appear at the audit of government affairs."
Responding to related questions from ruling party lawmakers, former Vice Governor Lee Hwa-young said, "Attorney Seol was not the attorney initially retained; he came in to attend the prosecution's questioning, but he helped the prosecutors, not me."