Democratic Party Files Complaint Against Rep. Joo Jinwoo with Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency... Yang Bunam, Legal Affairs Committee Chair: "Defamed the President and His Family"

The Legal Committee of the Democratic Party of Korea filed a complaint with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on October 28 against Joo Jin-woo, a lawmaker from the People Power Party. He is accused of defaming President Lee Jae-myung’s wife, Kim Hye-kyung, by stating false information as fact.

In a press release issued that day, the Democratic Party’s Legal Committee said, “We filed a complaint with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency against Rep. Joo on charges of violating the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, etc. (defamation) and defamation by stating false information as fact under Article 307(2) of the Criminal Act.”

On October 26, Rep. Joo posted on social media a post and video concerning Kim’s use of a golf course. In them, he claimed that Kim had enjoyed lavish golf accompanied by a famous professional golfer, received lessons from a world-renowned professional golfer, and paid tens of millions of won for them.

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The Legal Committee said, “In the video he posted, Rep. Joo inserted a photo of world-renowned professional golfer Lydia Ko competing into footage of a female golfer playing a round with Kim Hye-kyung, making it appear as though Lydia Ko had played golf and given lessons with Kim.” It added, “The direct rebuttal by the person concerned, Lydia Ko, made it clear that Rep. Joo’s claims were false.”

Regarding Rep. Joo’s claim about a “presidential-only luxury clubhouse,” the Legal Committee said, “No such facility exists at Taereung CC in the first place. He made the absurd claim that ‘the Lee Jae-myung family’s private use of a military facility is a crime’ over the use of Taereung CC, a military-operated facility that does not categorically prohibit civilian use.” It added, “He spread malicious falsehoods solely to smear the president’s family.”

In this regard, the Democratic Party’s Legal Committee said, “This goes far beyond the bounds of legitimate political criticism and amounts to malicious slander to which even parliamentary immunity cannot apply.”

Yang Bu-nam, chair of the Democratic Party’s Legal Committee, said, “We urge the investigative authorities to conduct a thorough investigation and impose severe punishment for the act of defaming the president and his family.”

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