Jun Kwang-hoon pointed out facts about Moon’s pro-North activities
On November 24, the Seoul High Court found Pastor Jun Kwang-hoon not guilty of defaming President Moon Jae-in by calling him a North Korean agent. The court found Jun not guilty on the charge, as well as a separate election law charge, after a previous court ruling also found him not guilty.
Jun was indicted for calling President Moon Jae-in an agent from North Korea. During the rallies in the fall and winter of 2019, Jun also argued that “Moon is trying to transform the Republic of Korea into a communist society.”
Another charge Jun faced was violating the Public Official Election Act by saying, “Please support the free right-wing camp in the upcoming election,” at various rallies. He was banned from participating in election-related activities since he was found guilty of violating the election law in 2018. The prosecutor argued that Jun violated the law because he participated in election-related activities before the 2020 general elections, even though he was disenfranchised. The prosecutor demanded two years for violating the election law and 6 months for defaming the president.
On the charge of violating the election law, the court said that “in order for his comments to be interpreted as election-related activity, a certain candidate must have been specified, but the term ‘free right-wing camp’ that Jun used might sound like it is referring to a conservative party but it is too vague a term to see that it was specifying a certain party.”
Regarding the defamation charge of calling President Moon Jae-in an “agent” of the North and that he is “trying to turn the country into a communist state,” the court said this does not amount to defamation under the law. The court explained that they should be interpreted as an “expression of personal opinion,” and “since the victim is the current president and has a huge influence over society and politics, a certain level of criticism against him should be allowed.”
The court added that “the defendant’s comments on the victim [president] had some aspects of a logical leap, but still, it doesn’t seem to be appropriate to punish the defendant under the criminal law under the perspective of freedom of expression.”
The appeals court’s ruling on Wednesday is almost the same as the lower court ruling on December 30, 2020.
The lower court argued that calling Moon an “agent” does not amount to defamation. “The term agent is often used in a rhetorical way and as a metaphor, so it is not possible to conclude that using the term would meet the defamation clause of defaming another by saying facts.”
The charge Jun faced is based on a defamation clause that is rare in many other developed countries and it also is a controversial issue in South Korea. It is punishable by criminal law, not just civil law, if a person defames another by making factual allegations about a certain person or organization. Under the South Korean criminal law, a person who defames another by publicly alleging facts shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than two years or by a fine not exceeding five million won ($4,266).
The court explained that when considering Pastor Jun’s previous comments, the word “agent” might have been used to refer to someone who is “friendly to North Korea.” For Jun’s comments that Moon is trying to turn South Korea into a communist state, the court also concluded that it was not an act of defaming another by publicly alleging facts. The court said that the defendant tried to back up his arguments and that it should be interpreted as him expressing his criticism toward the president’s political stance and attitudes.
The following are the remarks that Jun made that caused the prosecution to indict him.
“We cannot forgive those Moon Jae-in and Juche followers trying to choose Kim Il-sung in the current society of the Republic of Korea. Leftist pro-North Koreans are born to be liars in nature. Kim Il-sung was a liar, Park Hun-young was a liar, and Moon Jae-in is a liar. He sent his wife to pay respect to the gravesite of Yun Isang, an agent of North Korea working in West Germany. He tried to turn the Republic of Korea into a communist state by making communist Cho Kuk stand in the front line. In a [previous] research paper written by Cho Kuk, he clearly said that he will make the country a communist society at all costs.”
First lady Kim Jung-sook actually visited Germany and paid her respects to the controversial figure Yun Isang. Cho Kuk, former Justice Minister, did write a paper on the importance of following Leninism. It is difficult to dispute these points.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court sent a similar case accusing Attorney Ko Young-joo of defamation against Moon Jae-in back to the appeals court in September. Ko Young-joo was indicted for calling Moon a “communist.” The lower court found him not guilty, but the appeals court concluded that he was guilty of defamation and sentenced him to ten months in prison with a suspended sentence of two years. However, the Supreme Court ordered the appeals court to review the case again. It said that it is difficult to punish Ko for expressing his views on Moon Jae-in. It was reported that the Supreme Court agreed that the freedom of expression toward a public figure should be guaranteed as much as possible.
It appears that the courts are standing up for freedom of speech despite pressure from the Moon administration.
