'Battery Grandpa' Fined 7 Million Won Again on Appeal Over Chinese Spy Claim About Choi Tae-won's Partner

Prosecutor appeals, saying "The sentence in the first trial was too lenient"
Court rejects appeal, upholds fine

Park Sun-hyeok, 55, who spread false claims, including that Kim Hee-young, a director of the T&C Foundation and the cohabiting partner of SK Group Chairman Choi Tae-won, was a Chinese spy, was fined again in his appeal trial.

Seoul Eastern District Court in Songpa-gu, Seoul. Photo by Park Jaehyun

The Seoul Eastern District Court’s Criminal Appeals Division 5, presided over by Judge Kim Yang-hoon, on November 6 rejected the prosecution’s appeal and upheld the lower court’s fine of 7 million won in Park’s appeal trial on charges of defamation under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection. Park is an economics and politics YouTuber known as “Battery Grandpa.”

The court explained its sentencing decision, saying, “It is difficult to say that the defendant’s sentence is either too harsh or too lenient.”

Park was indicted on charges of defamation for spreading false claims through his YouTube channel in January 2025, suggesting that “Director Kim, Chairman Choi’s cohabiting partner, may be a Chinese spy.”

In July 2026, the lower court fined Park 7 million won. The prosecution, arguing that “the sentence is too lenient,” had sought an eight-month prison term at the final hearing of the appeal trial, the same sentence it had sought in the first trial.

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