S. Korean’s Suit Claims Retaliation

A South Korean politician now living in Orange County has filed a civil lawsuit alleging he was retaliated against in his native country for exposing corruption involving the son and wife of the president.

In the lawsuit, made public Thursday, Shin Bom Lee, a former member of South Korea’s national assembly, alleges Korean government officials trumped up criminal defamation charges against him after he demanded an investigation into President Kim Dae Jung’s wife, Hee Ho Lee, and their son, Hong Gul Kim.

The former assemblyman contends the first lady may have been involved in a bribery scandal that rocked Kim’s presidency in 1999, and that Kim’s son has close ties with a reputed Korean arms dealer.

In May, South Korean prosecutors indicted Lee for defaming members of the first family. If convicted, he could face a lengthy prison term, according to the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Lee, 51, said he filed the lawsuit in an attempt to clear his name.

“I’m forced to live in virtual exile,” said Lee, a visiting professor at UC Irvine. “We’d like to do our best to force deposition and find the truth.”

He is seeking close to $7 million in damages.

A spokesman for the South Korean Consulate in Los Angeles denied the charges and said Lee, who lost a reelection bid last year, was motivated by politics.

“He is using the American judicial system for political gains,” said consul Seok Joong Yoon, who is also named as a defendant.

Lee accuses Yoon of repeatedly threatening his life and demanding he drop the issue.

Yoon denied making threats. He added he respected Lee, who spent nearly three years in jail for defying the the country’s military dictatorship in the 1980s.

“Making such an allegation,” Yoon said with a pause. “I just feel sorry for him.”

According to the lawsuit, in 1999, as a member of the national assembly, Lee demanded a special investigation into the first lady’s possible role in a political scandal dubbed “furgate.”

The wife of a businessman charged with fraud allegedly attempted to curry favor with high ranking government officials by giving their wives expensive clothes, including fur coats. The lawsuit alleges the first lady may have been one of those who received the gifts.

Months later, Lee also made an issue of the first son’s alleged lavish lifestyle in Los Angeles. Lee suggested the president’s son was linked to an arms dealer who helped him buy a house in the South Bay.

Lee says those remarks were made in his capacity as a watchdog legislator and should have been protected speech. Instead, he said, the first lady, her son and others conspired to land him in prison.

“It is the hypocritical face of the Korean government,” Lee said. “To the rest of the world, they pose as a new democracy, but it is an imperial presidency.”

Lee’s family, including his wife and two adult children, currently live in the U.S., and he said he has no plans to return to South Korea until his name is cleared.

Lawsuits brought by foreign citizens against acts committed abroad are fairly common, said Edwin M. Smith, a professor of international law at USC.

In 1994, a federal jury held the estate of former Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos liable for atrocities after victims of his regime brought a lawsuit in U.S. court.

“Usually people don’t recover damages,” Smith said. “But they do get a judgment [if they win] that says, ‘Yes, you were wronged.’ ”