Blue House faces challenges as courts address controversial cases
The Seoul Central District Court’s appeals division found attorney Ko Young-joo, co-chair of KCPAC, not guilty of defaming President Moon Jae-in by calling him a “communist.”
On Friday, the court explained that “Ko’s communist remark is not defamation and it should be interpreted as his opinion or him expressing his views while debating President Moon Jae-in’s political ideology.” The court ruled that it is difficult to interpret that Ko was trying to defame Moon and that it cannot be seen as going past the line of freedom of speech.
Since this ruling came after the Supreme Court ordered the appeals court to review the case again, Ko is likely to be found not guilty.
In January 2013, Ko attended a New Year’s event held by conservative civic groups and called Moon Jae-in, who was a presidential candidate at the time, a “communist.” At that time, Ko added that “if this guy becomes president, it will be a matter of time for our country to turn into a red state.”
Ko also mentioned a previous case that then-lawyer Moon represented during its retrial process. The case was the “Burim incident” from 1981, where the government’s security agency arrested 22 people, including teachers and students, who were having a “book study” session. Ko was a prosecutor at that time leading the investigations into the case in Busan. Ko said they were in fact studying communist ideology, while defendants argued that they were victims of the government’s persecution against pro-democracy activists.
When mentioning the case during the New Year’s event, Ko said, “it was not a pro-democracy movement, but a communist movement.” He added that “Moon knew this fact as well.”
President Moon Jae-in filed a defamation lawsuit against Ko in September 2015. The prosecution officially brought the case to court in 2017. 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. The appeals court said that the “expression communist is an expression that degrades a victim’s social status more than any other expression.”
In September 2021, 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.
Some commentators speculate that as the Moon administration’s term comes to an end, the court is carrying out cases that were previously burdensome for them to rule on, as they worried about facing consequences from the Moon government.
In fact, the Seoul Administrative Court on Thursday ruled partially in favor of a civic group seeking information disclosure of the presidential Blue House’s off-the-record expenses, including spending on clandestine operations and first lady Kim Jung-sook’s wardrobe.
In 2018, the Korea Taxpayers’ Association filed a lawsuit seeking disclosure of the Blue House’s so-called special activity expenses and the costs of dressing the first lady for official ceremonies. Earlier that year, the group filed a request with the Blue House for the release of information on such expenses. The Blue House denied the request, calling such information secret. It said the information involves sensitive national security and defense matters and could gravely damage national interests.
However, the court ordered the partial reversal of the Blue House’s decision not to disclose this information and said some of the information should be disclosed to the civic group. The presidential office was also ordered to pay for the costs of the lawsuit.
Special activity expenses are one of the hottest issues in South Korean politics. They are allotted to the prosecution, the national spy agency and other select government organs for intelligence operation purposes. Information on where they were spent is kept confidential.
Former President Park Geun-hye was found guilty of bribery and embezzlement for receiving special activity expenses allocated to the spy agency. It had been customary in South Korea for the president to use special activity expenses for clandestine government affairs. Park and heads of the spy agency who faced similar charges argued that Park did not use it for her personal use, and that it was used for government affairs, but the court rejected the argument.
At that time, President Moon Jae-in and the liberal camp criticized former Presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak for illegally using the fund and argued that they will be transparent in this matter. This was one of the reasons that the civic group filed a lawsuit against the Blue House back in 2018.
The Korea Taxpayers’ Association released a statement on Friday welcoming the court’s decision and called for the Blue House to release the requested information. It included a letter that the group received from the Norwegian Prime Minister’s office that said if the prime minister uses the government budget and fails to provide a receipt, the individual will be subject to resignation or impeachment, saying it would not be acceptable in other democratic countries.
The group added that the Moon administration should not try to wait until its term ends in May, since such information can then be designated as a presidential record and it will then be more difficult to access it.
