South Korea's president decries media over unverified allegations after court upholds activist's sentence
South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung criticized what he called irresponsible media for repeating unverified allegations about him, following a court decision that upheld a disciplinary sentence for the conservative party activist who circulated the claim.
The activist is Jang Young-ha, the Seongnam Sujeong district chairman for the People Power Party. The Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s ruling that Jang receive one year in prison with a two-year suspended sentence for the alleged false statements about Lee’s ties to a gang.
President Lee shared a post on X (formerly Twitter) by Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Geon-tae about the Supreme Court’s decision and wrote that he seeks “a world with no fake news, where truth and justice flow like a river.”
He criticized media outlets for reporting the allegations without verification and for not issuing corrections or apologies, saying such reporting is dangerous and that “fake news” reporting runs counter to the public’s trust.
Jang had previously been connected to claims arising from his role as the former legal representative for Park Cheol-min, described as a member of a violent gang called the International Mafia faction. According to the allegations, Park’s statements formed the basis for the claim that Lee received about 2 billion won in exchange for favors while Lee served as Seongnam mayor.
According to the article, prosecutors initially declined to indict Jang, but the Democratic Party filed a retrial petition, which the court accepted, leading to Jang’s indictment in May 2023 and subsequent proceedings.
At the end of his post, the president thanked Rep. Lee for his work and asked for continued collaboration on the issues ahead. Rep. Lee later noted on X that he participated as the deputy chair of the Democratic Party’s legal committee when the retrial petition was filed.
Why this matters beyond Korea: the case highlights the global relevance of misinformation and media accountability in modern democracies, especially in an allied country with deep security and economic ties to the United States. For U.S. readers, it underlines how social media, political rhetoric, and legal actions around false allegations can affect public trust, policy decisions, and the stability of key bilateral partnerships, including defense cooperation, technology policy, and market confidence in South Korea’s tech and manufacturing sectors.