Rep. Kang Sun-woo, an independent lawmaker, has been sentenced to prison and detained in court on charges of accepting 100 million won in exchange for a party nomination for a city council seat. The court found that she had taken political funds through a method not permitted under the Political Funds Act, undermining the fairness of the electoral system and seriously damaging public trust. The court also stressed that a severe penalty was warranted because a large sum had been accepted in connection with a nomination.
According to legal sources on the 18th, Senior Judge Lee Chun-geun of the Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Division 1 on the 14th sentenced Kang to two years and six months in prison and ordered forfeiture of 100 million won on charges including violating the Political Funds Act. The judge also ordered her detained in the courtroom, citing the risk that she might destroy evidence or flee. The ruling came about a month after Kang, who had been indicted while in custody, was released on bail last month. The court sentenced Kim Kyung, a former Seoul Metropolitan Council member accused of handing over the 100 million won, to one year in prison, and Nam, a former aide to Kang who arranged the meeting between the two, to eight months in prison, suspended for two years.
The court found Kang guilty as charged of receiving a shopping bag containing 100 million won through Nam in exchange for a nomination, after Kim met Kang at a hotel in Yongsan District in January 2022, ahead of the local elections. Kang was then a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, and Kim was nominated as the party's sole candidate for a Seoul council seat in Gangseo District, Kang's constituency, and won the election.
The evidence underpinning the guilty verdict came from statements by those involved, including Kim and Nam, as well as by people around them. A nomination applicant identified as A told police that a district's National Assembly member, as the party's local chapter chief, wields absolute influence over nominations for city and district council seats within that constituency. A also described a conversation with Kang. According to that account, Kang asked A about plans for the local elections and said, "Do as you see fit. You know it is hard to get someone in but easy to knock someone out." Kim, asked during the trial whether National Assembly members exercise real and overwhelming influence over nominations for city and district council seats in their own constituencies, replied, "To the best of my recollection, that is correct." On that basis, the court concluded that Kang was in a position where it was reasonable to expect her to exert influence over the nomination of candidates for the Seoul council.
Conversations between Kang and Kim also served as grounds for the ruling. A transcript of their April 15, 2022, conversation was submitted as evidence. "The most important person is Rep. Kim Byung-kee," Kang said, adding, "What I mentioned earlier was that it would be good for Rep. Kim Byung-kee to prepare that way." In a June 16 conversation that year, she referred to "things like expected questions. Things you would want them to ask at the interview." She also spelled out how they should be delivered, telling him to send the question list to Kim Byung-kee, now an independent lawmaker, via Telegram so that no record would remain after it was deleted. Three people had applied for the nomination, but the court found that Kang gave direct help in the nomination process, including by telling Kim alone to prepare the questions in advance and pass them to Rep. Kim. That was cited as strong circumstantial evidence that Kang had received 100 million won in cash from Kim in connection with the nomination.
The circumstances in which the 100 million won in cash changed hands were also set out in the ruling. Nam testified at trial: "Around late December 2021 or early January 2022, I met Rep. Kang one-on-one right outside the lawmaker's office at the district office, handed over Kim's profile, and reported that 100 million won would be paid as a nomination contribution or political donation if the nomination was granted." Kim also acknowledged being told by Nam that the matter had been reported to Kang and that she had consented. Kim further testified, "She did not ask what it was and took it while saying something like 'Oh, you shouldn't have,' so I thought she knew everything." The court also viewed Kang's return of the 100 million won in cash to Kim in the underground parking garage of a hotel in Seoul's Jongno District on Aug. 13, 2022, as strong circumstantial evidence supporting the finding that she had accepted the money.
Kang had maintained her innocence, arguing that Nam took the cash from Kim without her knowledge and made a false confession to cover it up. The court rejected that account, saying there was no reason for Kim to hand over a sum as large as 100 million won to Nam rather than to Kang, who held sway over the nomination, and no reason for Kim to be asked to bring the money to a hotel if Nam had received it without Kang's knowledge. Kang filed an appeal with the Seoul Central District Court on the 15th, contesting the prison sentence.
