"My wife is dragged to court and my son can't even get a job"…Lee Jae-myung expresses his family's suffering

Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party of Korea's presidential candidate, said on the 2nd, "What happens to me is my own choice so I endure it, but I'm truly sorry that my family is suffering," sharing his feelings after entering politics. He particularly appealed that his children are having difficulties even finding jobs because of news reports.

On this day, Lee appeared on YouTube's "Kim Eo-jun's News Factory" in the morning and said, "My sons can't get hired. Despite studying quite a bit, whenever they get a job, the media comes and makes fake reports," and added, "Last time, there was a completely false report that my son got hired at Hwacheon Daeyu and he was immediately fired, but it was actually an entirely different company."

He continued, "Not long ago, my son had to go to the countryside to do part-time work at a tutorial center to make a living, and even there, the media chased him down and reported it as illegal employment," explaining, "If there was something illegal, it would be the owner, not the one doing the part-time job. Because of that article, he was fired again."

Lee said, "It was really painful to see my spouse being dragged to court and humiliated in front of reporters," and added, "My wife and children, especially my wife, followed me with nothing but faith in me, so I really feel sorry that she is being humiliated and suffering."

He also expressed his dissatisfaction with the prosecution’s investigations. Lee stated, "Regardless of administration, I was always targeted by the prosecution. I was indicted four times even during the Moon Jae-in government." He continued, "Usually, even the prosecution only investigates or indicts one person if there is an issue among siblings, but in Professor Cho Kuk's case, the entire family was devastated. In our case too, all the children were investigated. They squeezed and scrutinized us like dusting off every particle."

He added, "There are a lot of people who suffered just by being near Lee Jae-myung. Some simply pretended to be close and still got caught up. That was Ssangbangwool. They pretended to be connected even though they weren't. The prosecution said, 'This is it,' and so ended up catching them in something irrelevant."

Lee repeatedly emphasized, "Even the local thugs don't mess with people's families. Politics was my choice, but it's hard to bear my family’s suffering."

Reflecting on his political journey, he said, "I've walked a lonely, perilous path on the edge. It always felt like a misstep would cause me to fall, but fortunately I survived." He added, "But there were times walking that dangerous road when I wondered, 'Why am I doing this?'"

He also claimed that he had been under surveillance by national agencies since his time as Mayor of Seongnam. He said, "It seems like I was under special supervision since then," and "Apparently there really was someone in the National Intelligence Service specifically in charge of me. My older brother was also managed by them, and that even became the cause of family discord."

Yoo Ji-hee, Hankyung.com reporter keephee@hankyung.com