Main opposition Democratic Party(DP) leader Lee Jae-myung has flatly denied claims made to prosecutors by a local business owner, who said that funds he had sent to North Korea were partly meant to finance a trip by Lee to the North.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Lee said the testimony seems to be the latest fiction created by the prosecution, which he did not think would make a best-seller. 

KBS has confirmed that Kim Seong-tae, the former head of Ssangbangwool Group, told prosecutors that he had delivered eight million dollars to Pyongyang in 2019, of which three million dollars were meant to finance Lee's trip upon Pyongyang's request. Lee was the Gyeonggi provincial governor at the time.

The other five million dollars were for Gyeonggi Province's smart farm support project in the North. 

The ex-businessman also recanted an earlier statement that he had never spoken with Lee on the phone, admitting that the two had spoken in January 2019 using the phone of then-Gyeonggi Vice Governor Lee Hwa-young, who he was meeting in China.  

Kim is a key suspect in several high-profile corruption investigations, including embezzlement, payment of Lee's legal fees by proxy and the illegal transfer of cash to the North.