Military Court Finds Assemblyman Boo Seungchan Not Guilty of "Leaking Military Secrets"

Former Defense Ministry Spokesperson... Accused of Including Confidential Remarks from the "South Korea-U.S. SCM" in His Book

Assemblyman Boo Seungchan of the Democratic Party of Korea, who was indicted on charges of leaking military secrets he obtained while serving as a spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, was found not guilty.

On November 3, the Central Regional Military Court held a sentencing hearing on Boo's alleged violation of the Military Secrets Protection Act at the court building in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, and delivered its verdict. The court said the reason for its decision was that “it cannot be said to have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the leakage of the military secrets at issue would pose a clear risk to national security.”

Boo was indicted without detention by military prosecutors in July 2023 on charges of including in his book confidential remarks exchanged by senior South Korean and U.S. officials at the 53rd Security Consultative Meeting (SCM), held in Seoul in December 2021.

Boo Seungchan, a Democratic Party lawmaker-elect, is being interviewed by The Asia Business Daily at the National Assembly on the 14th. Photo by Kim Hyunmin.

The book in question is Power and Security: Moon Jae-in Administration's Defense Secrets and the Cheongong Allegations, published by Boo in February 2023. He was accused of separately recording information that had been designated as military secrets and never made public while he was serving as spokesperson, then leaking it outside the ministry in violation of security procedures around the time he left office. At the final hearing in September, military prosecutors asked the court to sentence Boo to five years in prison.

Boo was appointed spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense in December 2020, during the Moon Jae-in administration, and served until April 2022, a month before the Yoon Suk Yeol administration took office. Boo has maintained that his book did not contain any leaked military secrets and that the military prosecutors' indictment was retaliation for his mention of the fortune teller “Cheongong.”

In the book, Boo disclosed an account that Cheongong had visited the Army Chief of Staff's official residence and the Army Seoul Office inside the Ministry of National Defense compound during the selection of the presidential residence in April 2022. This sparked controversy over the alleged involvement of fortune tellers in the Yoon Suk Yeol administration. The Ministry of National Defense sought an injunction to ban the book's publication and sale. The court ruled that it could be published, sold and distributed if the six pages—out of a total of about 400—that had sparked controversy over military secrets were removed. Those six pages are redacted in the book currently on sale. Although Boo is a civilian, the Military Secrets Protection Act gives military courts jurisdiction over charges of disclosing military secrets in the course of one's duties, so his first-trial proceedings were held in a military court.

Meanwhile, Boo was investigated by civilian prosecutors on charges of “disclosing official secrets” for allegedly revealing details of a South Korea-U.S. defense ministers' meeting held in March 2021, but the charge was dismissed in May.

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