A Democratic Party (DP) lawmaker claimed Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon’s trip to New York last summer was to dig up dirt on liberal politicians including DP chief Lee Jae-myung.
Kim Eui-kyeom, a first-term DP lawmaker and a former Blue House spokesman for President Moon Jae-in, told TBS Radio Monday that Han’s nine-day trip from June 29 was to investigate Lee and other politicians related to the Moon government and their possible links to a jailed U.S. cryptocurrency expert with Pyongyang ties.
During the trip, Han visited the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which was responsible for handling the case of Virgil Griffith, a former Ethereum developer who was jailed for conspiring to help North Korea evade U.S. sanctions using cryptocurrency.
In April, Griffith was sentenced to 63 months in prison on charges of making an unauthorized trip to attend a conference in Pyongyang in April 2019 and teach North Koreans about cryptocurrency. He attended the Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference despite being denied permission to go by the U.S. Department of State.
The U.S. Department of Justice said Griffith, through offering North Koreans technical advice on using cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, had undermined sanctions and jeopardized the national security of the United States.
Griffith was a former research scientist at Ethereum Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on the technology behind the cryptocurrency Ether. Griffith, who was based in Singapore, was arrested in November 2019 and pleaded guilty in a hearing in September 2021.
According to Kim, the district attorney’s office submitted an email correspondence between Griffith and a business contact in South Korea as evidence in Griffith’s trial.
Kim said that the emails made mention of late Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and Lee Jae-myung, a former Seongnam mayor and current DP chairman. The emails purportedly mentioned that the Seoul and Seongnam mayors were interested in building a cryptocurrency network with North Korea in their cities.
Kim claimed that Han went to New York to see if there are other documents that can support DP politicians’ possible links with North Korea’s attempt to build a cryptocurrency infrastructure to evade U.S. and international sanctions.
“In the emails, Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung and Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and several lawmakers appear,” Kim said. “From the standpoint of political opponents, it can be an opportunity to find a link with North Korea and implicate key figures in the Moon Jae-in government and Lee Jae-myung.”
He said that it wasn’t just a matter of Han directing an investigation but “exercising the prosecutor’s instinct to conduct the investigation himself,” adding if the allegations turns out to be true “it will be grounds for impeachment.”
Later Monday, Justice Minister Han asked if Kim was trying to become a whistleblower for his own party but stopped short of denying the allegation.
“If any South Korean politicians are involved in North Korea-related cryptocurrency crimes, as Rep. Kim implied, this mean could mean they are punishable under the law,” Han said in a statement. “I want to ask Rep. Kim if he is he reporting a criminal case or is he trying to be a whistleblower?”
BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]
