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Park Su-hyeon, senior spokesperson of the Democratic Party of Korea, speaks to reporters at the National Assembly on November 2 about the audit and current issues. / Source: Song Ui-joo

With key figures in the Daejang-dong development scandal receiving heavy first-instance sentences, the two main parties responded in starkly different ways. The Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) argued President Lee Jae-myung was not implicated and moved to rally support for judicial reform, while the People Power Party (PPP) called the case a “power-driven corruption scandal” and urged the resumption of the president’s five suspended trials.

According to political sources on November 2, DPK senior spokesperson Park Su-hyeon told reporters at the National Assembly that, because the court made clear the indictment of President Lee on breach of trust was a “forced, fabricated prosecution,” the so-called “trial-suspension bill” had become a practical leadership matter, hinting it could pass this month. The DPK shelved the measure in June amid “shielding legislation” criticism but is now shifting to a full party-level response as calls to restart Lee’s trials resurface.

Momentum is therefore building for passage of the so-called “Lee Jae-myung shield bill,” which would halt a sitting president’s criminal trials, as well as the DPK’s newly adopted platform to abolish the Criminal Act’s breach-of-trust offense. Upon the first-trial ruling in the Daejang-dong case, the DPK pressed prosecutors to drop charges against Lee and asserted his innocence. With all Daejang-dong associates convicted of occupational breach of trust, the statute itself is again in the spotlight: prosecutors have separately charged Lee with breach of trust in connection with the case, and if the offense is abolished under DPK leadership, courts could dismiss the case or prosecutors could withdraw it. The party said it will accelerate its “TF on rationalizing economic crimes and civil liability,” which had paused during the audit season.

The PPP countered that the court had “clearly recognized a structural, power-type corruption scheme created under then-Mayor Lee,” and demanded that trials resume. Chief spokesperson Park Sung-hoon argued that while Yoo Dong-gyu, Kim Man-bae, Nam Wook, Jeong Min-yong and Jeong Young-hak were all jailed, “the final decision-maker, President Lee, has yet to stand in the dock.” Targeting the push to abolish breach of trust, he called it an “extra-constitutional idea,” warning that Lee’s Daejang-dong case would end not in conviction but in dismissal. The PPP said it will deploy every parliamentary tool available, including a filibuster, if the DPK forces through the trial-suspension bill and related judicial-reform measures.