Rep. Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party of Korea chair, appears tight-lipped as he attends court hearing Friday. (Yonhap)
Rep. Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party of Korea chair, appears tight-lipped as he attends court hearing Friday. (Yonhap)

Rep. Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party of Korea chair and likely presidential front-runner, attended court Friday for corruption charges dating back to his time as mayor of Seongnam, a city in Gyeonggi Province near Seoul.

Lee did not respond to reporters’ questions as he arrived at the Seoul Central District Court, where he has appeared nearly weekly for three ongoing trials.

On Friday, Lee was in court on charges that he leaked confidential information and handed out favors to select private investors in a real estate project he was pushing as Seongnam mayor, costing the city development corporation some 480 billion won ($330,000).

In November, Lee was handed a suspended jail term for violating election laws over the course of the previous presidential election in 2022, which he lost to President Yoon Suk Yeol by a thin margin.

If his jail sentence is confirmed in appeals, which could be in February at the earliest, he would lose his ability to run in the presidential election that could take place in the event the Constitutional Court upholds the National Assembly’s impeachment of Yoon.