Anchor: Prosecutors have requested a warrant to arrest Democratic Party chief Lee Jae-myung. Lee stands accused of doling out favors to land developers when he was mayor of Seongnam on the outskirts of Seoul, thereby allowing them to reap excessive profits and costing the city hundreds of billions of won in lost income. Lee claimed innocence and expressed outrage. This is the first time in the country's modern history that the prosecution has sought to arrest the leader of the main opposition party. 
Choi You Sun reports. 

Report: Prosecutors are seeking an arrest warrant for main opposition Democratic Party(DP) leader Lee Jae-myung over his alleged role in the Daejang-dong and Wirye land development scandals as well as suspicions of third-party bribery through Seongnam’s football club.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office on Thursday filed for Lee's warrant on charges of breach of trust, bribery, conflict of interest, corruption and concealing profits from a crime during his term as mayor of the Gyeonggi Province city of Seongnam.

The conflict-of-interest charges are based on allegations that Lee abused insider information about the Daejang-dong project when he was Seongnam mayor, helping private developers, such as Kim Man-bae, reap profits of around 788-point-six billion won. 

He is also charged with a breach of trust for removing a contractual clause for the project that entitled the city government to a share of the profits, costing the city developer some 489-point-five billion won in dividends between August 2014 and January 2023. 

Lee is also suspected of leaking information he came across on the Wirye development project while in office to help private developers earn profits of around 21-point-one billion won between November 2013 and January 2018.

The third-party bribery charges were applied for allegations that Lee provided administrative favors in return for 13-point-four billion won in corporate sponsorship for Seongnam's football club between 2014 and 2016, when his role as mayor made him president of the club.

Lee, for his part, denounced the events of the day as evidence that the Yoon Suk Yeol dictatorship has privatized the prosecution's power to remove a political opponent.

Asserting his innocence, Lee disparaged the warrant request, rhetorically asking why he would flee and abandon his family and the people as the leader of the main opposition party.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.