Democratic Party: "Yoon's Election-Invalidating Sentence Upheld on Appeal... People Power Party Must Now Pay the Price"

Regarding former President Yoon Suk Yeol's conviction on appeal for making false statements, the Democratic Party of Korea said, "Now the People Power Party must pay the price." Yoon, who was indicted for making false statements while he was a presidential candidate, received a suspended prison sentence that invalidates his election.

Park Sung-joon, the Democratic Party's chief spokesperson, said on the 4th, "Today, the appeals court found Yoon Suk Yeol guilty, as the court of first instance did, on charges of making false statements and sentenced him to one year and six months in prison, suspended for three years." He added, "This was a just ruling on an electoral crime in which he deceived voters with lies during the last presidential election."

Yonhap News Agency

Park said, "The court found all of Yoon Suk Yeol's lies to be true." He added, "His claims that he had never introduced a lawyer to Yoon Woo-jin, the former head of the Yongsan Tax Office, and that he had never met with Jeon Seong-bae, known as the 'Geonjin shaman,' and Kim Keon Hee were both lies. This was a serious electoral crime that distorted voters' ability to make a free choice."

With former President Yoon sentenced to a penalty that invalidates his election, the People Power Party now faces having to return 39.7 billion won in campaign expenses. Under the Public Official Election Act, presidential candidates who are elected or receive at least 15% of the vote are reimbursed in full for their campaign expenses by the National Election Commission. However, if a candidate is convicted of an election-related crime and the sentence of a fine of at least 1 million won becomes final, the election is invalidated and the candidate's political party must return the campaign expenses.

On this matter, Park said, "Now it is the People Power Party's turn to take responsibility." He added, "It was the People Power Party that put forward a candidate who distorted the people's choice with lies. Rather than correcting those lies, the party defended him and went ahead with the election, making him president."

Park also criticized the People Power Party for not apologizing. "The People Power Party has not offered so much as an apology," he said. "It is still holding on to the 39.7 billion won in campaign expenses from an election conducted through lies." He added, "The People Power Party must immediately apologize to the people and return the 39.7 billion won to them without delay. It must clearly take responsibility for making a candidate who lied president and ultimately staging an insurrection."

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