On March 31, the air inside the courtroom where the trial of Democratic Party Representative Lee Jae-myung was held was cooler than ever. Lee, who has been comrades for 15 years, and Yoo Dong-kyu, former director of the planning department of the Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, did not make eye contact properly between the defendant's seat and the witness stand, just a few steps. It was his first face-to-face encounter in court since the allegations surfaced in September 2019. On this day when the "9-year relationship" returns to the "bad relationship", we will convey the atmosphere of the court through the <Interview File>.

"In Korean golf courses, we meet in the morning, play golf, have a drink, and then go out together in the second half and have dinner and have a drink, and this is a system operated by Korean golf courses. There are many foreign golf courses that don't sell alcohol, and you just have to go and play golf and exercise, and you're done. So it's not a place where you can have the kind of close contact you imagine on a domestic golf course. And nowadays they say that they don't go with friendly people (round of golf) and make (rounding members) in this way ... When I join and play golf, I don't remember it because it's between meeting and ending. (Counsel for Democratic Party Representative Lee Jae-myung)


The issue in Lee's trial, as everyone knows, is whether he knew the late Kim Moon-ki, the first director of development of the Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, who was in charge of the Daejang-dong project. Yoo was one of Mr. Lee's closest associates and has accompanied Mr. Lee and Mr. Kim on overseas business trips in the past, making him a key witness to prove their relationship. Prior to the full-scale witness briefing against Yu, a tense battle broke out between the prosecution and Lee's representative at the trial this morning. Let me introduce you to one of the passages that stood out to you.



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While acknowledging that Kim and Kim had several photos taken together while playing golf on business trips to Australia and New Zealand, Lee said they did not have a close relationship to the point of "knowing." Lee said, "Nowadays, they say that people who are close to each other don't go to play golf and make (rounding members) by joining, but when they join and play golf together, they meet at that time and it ends, so I can't remember it," and claimed, "It's been seven years (since I played golf on an overseas business trip), and it's almost impossible to remember who I played this with." He also argued that domestic and overseas rounding cultures are completely different. Lee said, "At Korean golf courses, we meet in the morning, play golf, have a drink, wash up after the second half, have dinner together, and have a drink, but there are many places that do not sell alcohol, and they just come after playing golf and exercising." Just because you accompanied him on a business trip and played golf with him, you can't falsely conclude that you "didn't know Kim."

"I have a good relationship with my wife. However, if you look at the photos I took with my wife, there are no pictures of them making eye contact or talking to each other, except for the wedding photos forced by the cinematographer. It seems difficult to say that there is no friendship just because there is no such (eye contact) in a split second. There are also photographs of two people holding hands, where you can feel more intimacy than eye contact." (Prosecution)

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Representative Lee also compared the business trip that former Chief Kim and Chairman Lee traveled to a "package trip." "Isn't it true that you traveled to the same car and ate every day?" If you look at the photos and videos that the prosecution submitted in the last trial, there was no scene of the two talking or making eye contact, and just because they were in the same frame, they can't judge "you know or don't know."

The prosecution didn't just listen. The prosecution fought back, saying, "They claim that there were no photos of them talking or making eye contact during business trips, but the photos were the result of a split second," and that "the absence of eye contact photos does not mean that they did not make friends with each other." The prosecutor even mentioned his "wedding photos." The prosecution countered, "I have a very good relationship with my wife, but there are no photos of me making eye contact with her other than wedding photos," and that "the absence of such (eye contact) in a split second does not mean that there is no friendship at all." He replied, "There are also photos of (former Chief Kim and Chairman Lee) holding hands in a friendly way, which is more intimate than eye contact."

He was once served as the 'Lord', but... Throughout the trial, "Mr. Lee Jae-myung"

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After a fierce battle between the prosecution and Lee, the afternoon trial began in earnest with witness papers. The first witness in Lee's trial, Mr. Yu. When General Manager Yu entered the courtroom, Mr. Yi raised his head and looked in the direction of General Manager Yu. However, Mr. Yu looked straight ahead, passed the defendant's seat where Mr. Lee was sitting, and sat on the witness stand. He then referred to Lee, whom he had once served as the "main army," as "Mr. Lee Jae-myung" throughout the trial, and testified against him.

Let's start with the previously disputed testimony about overseas business trips. Former General Manager Yoo explained how the overseas traveler who was to accompany the representative was suddenly replaced by another construction employee to former Director Kim. Chung Jin-sang, the former head of the Political Affairs Coordination Office of the CEO's office, instructed him to "take someone the mayor would feel comfortable with," so he replaced Kim with a business traveler. He recalled that the atmosphere was cordial from the start, saying, "(Former chief Jeong) asked me to bring someone close to me because I thought Lee Jae-myung would be uncomfortable, so I changed the attendee to Kim."



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He also claimed to have known in advance that Lee was going to play golf with Kim. If it was an unfamiliar person, I would have asked who it was, but this representative said nothing. Former Chief Kim drove a cart that could only accommodate two people at the golf course at the time to closely assist Representative Lee, and he testified that Chairman Kim and Representative Lee went sea fishing together on a yacht. At that time, he paid $2,3 for the yacht rental, and only three people were present for sea fishing, including Mr. Lee, Mr. Lee's secretary, and Mr. Kim, and Mr. Lee said that he had caught the true dome. We played golf and went sea fishing together, and there's no way Lee didn't know Kim. On the other hand, Lee's position is that when he was mayor of Seongnam, he only made 000 overseas business trips, and each trip was visited by about 16 Seongnam city officials, but he could not remember former Chief Kim.

There was also testimony that Kim and Lee had been friends since before he served as mayor of Seongnam. In 10, at a Bundang remodeling briefing, I heard from former Chief Kim that he was talking to Lee, who was a candidate for mayor of Seongnam at the time. "I understand that both Mr. Lee Jae-myung and Mr. Kim were present at the time," Yoo explained, "and when I told Mr. Kim that Mr. Lee Jae-myung was coming, Mr. Kim said, 'He also spoke to me.'" He also said that in 2010, both Lee and former Chairman Kim attended a seminar hosted by the Seongnam Institute for Policy Studies, of which he was co-president. Yoo was the chairman of the remodeling promotion committee for an apartment in Seongnam at the time, and Kim was the head of the sales department related to remodeling at a construction company.

On the other hand, Kim, who worked for the Seongnam Urban Development Corporation after Lee was elected mayor of Seongnam, testified that he and his wife visited Seongnam City several times and reported directly to Representative Lee. He said the two men, who had already met several times at the time, seemed to recognize each other. On the other hand, Lee also drew a line under his public relationship with former Chief Kim. There are several documents in the approval column that list the names of former Chief Kim and Chairman Lee, but there have been very few face-to-face reports. Lee pointed out, "Former Chief Kim said that he 'never personally reported (to Mayor Lee Jae-myung) and is not in a position to do so.'"

The next trial is also a witness newspaper... Lee Jae-myung, will you answer the question directly?

The trial ended around 7 p.m. when Yu complained of eye pain. The unfinished witness papers will continue at the next trial on the 14th. On this day, the prosecutor's newspaper on former General Manager Yu will be concluded, and the representative will press on former General Manager Yu. I think the key will be how much we can trust General Manager Yu's words. This is because Yu is also a defendant on trial. In the next trial, it seems possible that Mr. Lee will personally exchange questions and answers with Mr. Yu, and we will also share Mr. Lee's fourth trial next week through the <Interview File>.