A Suwon appellate court has reduced the prison sentence for former Gyeonggi Vice Gov. Lee Hwa-young, who was previously convicted of accepting bribes from a domestic underwear maker and conspiring to send an illegal remittance to North Korea.

The Suwon High Court shortened Lee’s prison term on Thursday, from nine years and six months to seven years and eight months, for the bribery and violations of the Political Funds Act and the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act.

But the appeals court upheld the lower court’s decision to impose a fine of 250 million won, or around 172-thousand U.S. dollars, and a forfeiture of 325-point-95 million won.

Acknowledging that the remittance by Ssangbangwool Group was meant to cover the cost of then-Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung’s trip to the North, the court said the former vice governor’s offense was a serious crime that betrayed the public’s trust and undermined the fairness of public officials’ performance of their duties. Lee Jae-myung currently serves as chief of the main opposition Democratic Party.

However, the court noted that the former provincial official had not forced the former Ssangbangwool chief, Kim Seong-tae, to make the payment, nor had he specifically ordered the destruction of evidence.

Lee Hwa-young was found guilty of using Ssangbangwool’s corporate credit card and vehicle between 2018 and 2022, and of accepting 334 million won worth of bribes and illegal political funds from the group.

He was also convicted of having the company transfer eight million dollars to the North, consisting of five million dollars that the provincial government had promised the regime for a smart farm project and three million dollars for Lee Jae-myung’s visit.