Former Gyeonggi Vice Governor Convicted of Perjury in Ssangbangwool Case

SUWON, South Korea, June 20 (Yonhap) -- A regional court on Saturday found a former vice governor of Gyeonggi Province guilty of perjury for falsely testifying to parliament that he was provided with alcohol and food during a prosecution interrogation.

The Suwon District Court sentenced Lee Hwa-young to four months in prison, convicting him of violating the law on testimony before the National Assembly, according to the court document. The case was tried before a seven-panel citizen jury.

Lee was indicted on perjury charges after he testified during a parliamentary hearing in 2024 that he and Kim Seong-tae, former chairman of underwear maker Ssangbangwool, were treated to alcohol and raw salmon during questioning by prosecutors over their involvement in an illegal remittance to North Korea in 2019.

Lee claimed that prosecutors pressured and enticed him and Kim to give false statements incriminating President Lee Jae Myung, then the main opposition party leader who had served as Gyeonggi governor when the unauthorized money transfer allegedly took place.

The court ruled that Lee Hwa-young's testimonies lacked consistency and credibility.

The court ruling draws attention as it blunts the ruling Democratic Party's (DP) push to dismiss the remittance case, which was built on the argument that the prosecution had coerced the former vice governor into implicating the president.

"A grand deception against the public, through false demagoguery and claims of indictment rigging, has finally been laid bare," Jeong Jeom-sig, floor leader of the main opposition People Power Party, said in a Facebook post.

"The DP has lost its core argument for demanding that the remittance case be dismissed. President Lee should let go of his obsession with dropping the case," Jeong said.

Lee Hwa-young was convicted of colluding in a US$3.94 million transfer to North Korea between 2019 and 2020. He was also found guilty of receiving illicit political funds and bribes from Ssangbangwool in return for promising business deals in the North.

The latest court ruling extends the jail term for the former vice governor as he is already serving seven years and eight months over the illegal remittance case.

In Saturday's ruling, however, the court dismissed abuse of power and other charges brought against the former vice governor, which alleged he had acted to facilitate the remittances and other North Korea projects, including a potential visit to Pyongyang by then Gov. Lee Jae Myung.

The court recognized an abuse of prosecutorial power, finding that the prosecution sought to indict the ex-vice governor across multiple criminal cases related to the remittance, infringing upon his defense rights.

Lee's defense counsel had argued that the prosecution brought multiple indictments against the defendant to ultimately close in on President Lee Jae Myung.