Jeon Gwang-hoon Referred on Suspicion of Defaming President Lee; Police: "Andong Dam" Remarks False

Yonhap News Agency

Jeon Gwang-hoon, pastor of Sarang Jeil Church, was referred to the Public Prosecution Office on suspicion of defaming President Lee Jae-myung by spreading false information about his teenage years.

According to Yonhap News Agency on Oct. 22, the Public Crime Investigation Division of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Metropolitan Investigation Unit referred Jeon to the Seoul Central Public Prosecution Office without detention that day on suspicion of defamation by stating false facts under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection.

Jeon is suspected of repeatedly spreading false information about President Lee through his YouTube channel and other platforms on July 5 last year and May 10 this year.

In a YouTube broadcast last July, Jeon cited remarks made at a press conference by Mose Tan, a Korean American and former professor at Liberty University, and claimed, "You know, there was a rape under Andong Dam. It wasn't just one person; it was Lee Jae-myung and several others."

He also said that President Lee had been sent to a juvenile detention center and had not graduated from regular middle or high school, and that he had therefore taken the qualification exams.

On May 10 this year, during a Sunday service at Sarang Jeil Church streamed live on YouTube, Jeon claimed, "Lee Jae-myung didn't even graduate from middle school or high school. He took the qualification exams at a juvenile detention center and somehow transferred to Chung-Ang University."

While investigating a complaint filed by the Peace Tree Christian Recovery Center over those remarks, police separately became aware of and began investigating Jeon's comments about rape made on July 5 last year.

Jeon denied the allegations during police questioning in August. He said that he had misspoken when he said "juvenile detention center," intending to say "juvenile worker," and that his comments about rape were a quotation of former Professor Mose Tan's claims. However, police determined that Jeon's remarks were false, citing, among other things, the fact that President Lee had no record of being referred to a juvenile department.

Police also determined that Jeon had acted deliberately and with the intent to disparage, noting that the facts could have been checked using publicly available materials, including related news reports, but that he had spread the claims without independently verifying them. Police accordingly referred Jeon to the Public Prosecution Office without detention.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.