Prosecutors Summon Current Kyunghyang Shinmun Reporter Over Alleged Defamation of Yoon

The prosecution is summoning and investigating a current journalist suspected of defaming President Yoon Suk-yeol by publishing false reports during the last presidential election period.

Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Photo by Yonhap News

According to the legal community, on the morning of the 22nd, the Special Investigation Team on Election Interference and Public Opinion Manipulation at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (led by Kang Baek-shin, Head of the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 1) summoned former legal team leader A from Kyunghyang Shinmun as a suspect. It is known that the prosecution has completed the forensic procedures on the items seized from the journalist.

Journalist A is accused of defamation under the Information and Communications Network Act for publishing false reports about Yoon Suk-yeol, then the People Power Party candidate, ahead of the last presidential election. The prosecution suspects the report, which suggested that the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Central Investigation Department in October 2021 had detected signs of Jo Woo-hyung, a broker involved in the Daejang-dong illegal loan case, being implicated in the Busan Savings Bank corruption investigation but allegedly covered up the investigation.

On October 21, 2021, Kyunghyang Shinmun reported, based on an interview with Lee Kang-gil, the initial developer of Daejang-dong, that "(the Central Investigation Department of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office) confirmed that Mr. A (Jo Woo-hyung), who arranged the loan, received 1.03 billion won as a reward but took no subsequent action." The article also suggested that then-President Yoon, who was the head of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Central Investigation Division 2 at the time, might have been informed of this. It is reported that Journalist A was serving as the legal team leader when the article was published.