Lee Kyung-kwan
Introduction
Lee Kyung-kwan is a sitting member of Seoul’s Gwanak District Council, elected in the 3 June 2026 local elections to the council’s 10th term, who was referred to prosecutors on charges of repeatedly sexually abusing a council employee over roughly two years. Seoul’s metropolitan police agency referred Lee, a People Power Party member, to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office on 30 October 2026 without detention, and announced the referral on 7 November. The allegations are unadjudicated — no indictment has been issued — and Lee has not been convicted of anything.
Background Information
Lee sits on the Gwanak District Council, the local legislative body for the Seoul district that contains Seoul National University, as a member of the conservative People Power Party. The complaint against him was filed in May 2026 by a council employee identified only as A, who alleged that Lee had subjected them to sexual harassment and abuse continuously for about two years, from April 2024 through April 2026 — a period that spans Lee’s successful June 2026 campaign for the seat. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s women and juvenile crime investigation division handled the case.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Referred to prosecutors on sexual-abuse charges; council expulsion vote failed; presumption of innocence.
The employee’s criminal complaint alleged that Lee used the prospect of contract renewals and hiring decisions to pressure them into meals and drinking sessions, and engaged in inappropriate physical contact inside and outside the district council building as well as at restaurants and in vehicles. The alleged conduct continued for approximately two years, from April 2024 to April 2026, per the complaint. Police said they reviewed the victim’s statement and related materials and concluded the allegations were substantiated — the basis for the referral to prosecutors on the charge of indecent acts by abuse of occupational authority.
The council’s own machinery had already grappled with the case before the criminal referral: the Gwanak District Council’s special ethics committee voted to expel Lee, but the disciplinary motion was rejected at a plenary session on 16 September — meaning the sitting council voted to keep him in his seat after its ethics committee had recommended removal. The referral to prosecutors followed six weeks later without detention, police said.
Local civic groups are now calling for the expulsion motion to be put back on the council’s agenda and for swift disciplinary action — the political branch of the case remains open even as the criminal referral proceeds, because Lee retains his seat on the 10th Gwanak District Council.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The referral was reported by Seoul Economic Daily through Yonhap-sourced coverage, and the timeline it documents shows the two tracks moving in opposite directions: the criminal case advanced from complaint to substantiated police findings to a prosecutor referral, while the council’s political track moved backwards — the ethics committee’s expulsion vote dying at plenary on 16 September. Civic groups’ demands for a renewed expulsion vote have so far gone unanswered in the covered window.
No statement from Lee, the People Power Party, or the Gwanak District Council secretariat was reported in the coverage, and the employee’s identity remains protected under the initial A convention. The charge itself — indecent acts by abuse of occupational authority — encodes the coercion alleged: that the abuse ran through Lee’s control over the employee’s contract renewal and hiring prospects rather than through force alone.
Current Status
Lee’s criminal case now sits with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, which will decide whether to indict him on the indecent-acts-by-abuse-of-authority charge; the police referral is not an indictment and he has been neither charged by prosecutors nor convicted. His seat on the district council is intact after the failed 16 September expulsion vote, and civic groups continue to press for the motion’s return. The employee’s complaint remains the sole public account of the alleged two-year abuse, and all allegations against Lee are unadjudicated.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Lee was elected to the Gwanak council in June 2026 on the strength of a campaign whose complaint period — April 2024 to April 2026 — overlaps almost entirely with the abuse period alleged, making the seat itself a product of the timeframe prosecutors will now examine. A first-term council member facing a possible indictment, a rejected but revivable expulsion motion, and civic-group pressure has the narrowest of political standing; the June 2026 election that put him in office means the next scheduled accountability point for voters is years away, leaving the council’s plenary as the only near-term mechanism.
Sources
- Seoul Economic Daily, “Gwanak District Council Member Referred to Prosecutors Over Sexual Abuse Claims.” source