49% of Koreans support opposition leader's arrest, poll shows

Rep. Lee Jae-myung, the chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, attends a plenary session of the National Assembly, Friday. Yonhap

By Jun Ji-hye

Nearly half of all Koreans agree that main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Chairman Rep. Lee Jae-myung should be arrested, according to a Gallup Korea poll released Friday.

Lee faces charges of corruption related to a land development scandal and a separate bribery allegation involving a football club during his tenure as the mayor of Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, from 2010 to 2018.

In the poll conducted from Tuesday to Thursday, 49 percent of the 1,000 adults surveyed said Lee should be arrested, while 41 percent thought otherwise.

The poll was carried out after prosecutors sought a warrant to arrest Lee on Feb. 16. It was the first time in Korea that an arrest warrant had been sought on the leader of the country's largest opposition party.

A motion requesting parliamentary consent to Lee's arrest was reported in the National Assembly on Friday ahead of a vote.

The parliamentary consent is necessary for Lee's arrest as he is an incumbent lawmaker who enjoys immunity from arrest while the Assembly is in session.

Fifty-seven percent of the respondents of the poll said such immunity for lawmakers should be removed so as not to impede investigations, while 27 percent supported the maintenance of Assembly privilege. These supporters said immunity is necessary to prevent political repression.

The Assembly is scheduled to put the motion to an anonymous vote Monday. But chances are slim that the motion will be passed, because the DPK, which has labeled the prosecution's investigations into its chairman as “political persecution,” holds a majority.

Meanwhile, Lee has rejected all allegations as fabrications, saying that there is no evidence showing he received illicit funds.