On October 31, 2025, the Seoul Central District Court found guilty the defendants in the criminal case concerning a development project for the Dae Jang-dong neighborhood in Seongnam.
Details of the case
Lee Jae-myung was accused of being involved in this scandal and stood trial, as the final approval for each major stage of the project ultimately rested with him as mayor. His claims of being unaware of any issues were difficult to believe, especially since lawyer Nam Wook, one of the defendants, stated in court that everything was done according to Lee’s wishes. However, the court indefinitely suspended the trial after Lee was elected president, based on the constitutional immunity granted to the head of state.
Guilty!
The court ruled that the individuals had conspired to form a cartel and secure preferential terms in implementing the development project.
- The court sentenced former Seongnam Urban Development Corporation Planning Director Yoo Dong-gyu to eight years in prison, a fine of 400 million won, and asset forfeiture of 810 million won.
- Kim Man-bae, major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu Asset Management, was sentenced to eight years in prison and asset forfeiture of 42.3 billion won.
- Lawyer Nam Wook and accountant Jeong Young-hak received prison sentences of 4 and 5 years, respectively, and lawyer Jeong Min-yong, former head of strategic projects at Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, was sentenced to 6 years in prison, a fine of 3.8 billion won, and asset forfeiture of 3.722 billion won.
However, the court dropped the charges against the suspects for violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, which allows for more severe penalties, including life imprisonment.
Is the verdict final?
After a verdict is issued in the first instance court, the prosecution usually files an appeal, and the case continues to be heard in higher courts. If the prosecution declines to appeal, then according to the Criminal Procedure Act, the sentences cannot be increased.
However, on November 7, 2025, the prosecution decided not to appeal the ruling in the high-profile case. As one of the prosecutors involved in the case stated, he was waiting for the opportunity to file an appeal. However, just hours before the seven-day deadline expired, he was informed by senior management that a decision had been made not to appeal.
All five defendants filed appeals, meaning that their sentences can be reduced, but not increased.
After this, Chief of the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office Jeong Jin-woo announced his intention to resign. The investigation team stated that the decision was made on the instructions of the Ministry of Justice, even though the prosecutors were unanimously in favor of filing an appeal.
On November 9, the acting Prosecutor General, No Man-seok, stated that he made the decision “after receiving reports from the subordinate department, considering the opinion of the Ministry of Justice, and consulting with the head of the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office.”
On November 10, 2025, Minister of Justice Jeong Seong-ho denied claims that President Lee Jae-myung was involved in any way in the prosecution’s decision not to file an appeal.
Is the president “sparing his own”?
Conservative media outlets have been full of articles saying “canceling an appeal undermines the justice system” or “punishment should serve justice, not power”, noting that compared to what the defendants in the case earned, the size of the fine is so small that most of the illegal profits remain de facto at their disposal. Initially, the prosecutor’s office sought the confiscation of 781.4 billion won ($537 million) from the 787.8 billion won profit, but the court decided to confiscate only 47.2 billion won.
Representatives of South Korea’s leading opposition party, People Power Party (PPP), have directly accused President Lee Jae-myung’s administration of interfering in the high-profile criminal case and obstructing the activities of the prosecutor’s office.
About 40 PPP lawmakers gathered in front of the Prosecutor General’s Office and demanded the resignation of Noh Man-seok, who instructed the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office to reconsider its decision and appeal, accusing him of “selling the 70-year-old pride of the Prosecutor’s Office to petty criminals” in order to curry favor with the presidential administration and the Ministry of Justice.
The former PPP head Han Dong-hoon, a former employee of the prosecutor’s office, also commented negatively: “The prosecution should have appealed immediately after the decision was made. It’s an obligation, not an option.” In his opinion, the decision of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office was the result of collusion between several government agencies. “The Presidential Administration, the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Justice, and the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office were all involved. The perpetrators must be brought to justice and sent to prison.”
A representative of the presidential administration categorically denied all accusations of possible involvement in the prosecution’s refusal to appeal the court verdict. According to him, the presidential administration did not take part in the decision-making process but was notified of it only afterwards.
Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho also said that the prosecutor’s office should stay out of political cases and called for the organization to be reformed. In a series of statements, he indicated that he had never opposed the prosecutor’s office’s appeal, had not given any such instructions to his subordinates, and had not discussed the issue with the presidential administration. Jung refused to resign, calling their public expression of the collective opinion of the prosecutor’s office “extremely troublesome.” He stated that his advice for prosecutors to “make an informed decision” was “a common expression, not pressure.”
Meanwhile, the heads of a number of district prosecutor’s offices demanded detailed explanations from Noh Man-seok in connection with the decision, distributing a corresponding message on the department’s internal network. 18 prosecutors issued a statement calling on acting Prosecutor General Noh Man-seok to state the reasons. The Prosecutor General’s Office effectively blocked and overturned the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office’s decision to appeal the verdict, the latter of which handled the case in court.
As a result, Noh Man-seok told his version: Deputy Minister Lee Jin-soo presented “several options” for handling the case, each of which involved withdrawing the appeal. Nevertheless, “it was necessary to consider relations with the presidential administration and the ministry,” the Prosecutor General said, pointing to political interference.
In response, on November 11, the Democratic Party accused the prosecutors, who objected to the cancellation of the appeal, of supporting Yoon and organized disobedience. Democratic Party leader Jung Chung-rae has demanded disciplinary measures and even legal reforms that would allow senior prosecutors to be fired. Lawmaker Jo Seoung-lae called the prosecutor’s actions an act of insubordination by “political prosecutors” closely associated with former President Yoon Seok-yeol, describing the PPP as “perfectly obedient to the prosecution like Pavlov’s dog.”
Woo Sang-ho, the presidential secretary for political affairs, also denied the opposition’s claims: “We had not planned anything in advance…There is no benefit for the president.”
The PPP responded with a series of rallies and demonstrations demanding the resignation of the Minister of Justice and the Prosecutor General, calling the decision to cancel the appeal a “suicide note for the Korean judicial system.”
On November 14, 2025, amid fierce internal backlash over his role in rejecting the appeal, Noh Man-seok resigned. In his farewell speech, he asked to “stop discussing disciplinary measures.”
On the same day, amid the fuss, President Lee Jae-myung’s approval rating dropped below 60% yet again. The president’s position is not so bad, but the damage he took is rather sensitive.
On November 18, conservative lawmakers demanded the resignation of Jung Sung-ho. “Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho and Deputy Justice Minister Lee Jin-soo have become the worst justice minister and vice minister in Korean history… They should step down immediately if they have any sense of shame.” He added that if they have nothing to hide, they should immediately agree to a parliamentary investigation and the appointment of a special prosecutor.
Summa summarum. According to South Korean media outlets, the scandal surrounding the appeal is not just a bureaucratic mistake. This is a test of Korean democracy and its commitment to justice. And it seems that the test has been failed: the servility of the authorities is leading to a new conflict among the branches of government, this time between the government and the judicial and law enforcement system.
Konstantin Asmolov, PhD in History, leading research fellow at the Centre for Korean Studies of the Institute of China and Modern Asia at the Russian Academy of Sciences
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