Supreme Court Confirms Not Guilty Verdict for Ministry of Education Employee Who Unauthorizedly Changed 'Establishment of the Republic of Korea' to 'Establishment of Government'

An education ministry official who was prosecuted for unauthorized modification of elementary school social studies textbook content was acquitted.

Supreme Court. / Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

According to the legal community on the 16th, the Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice Oh Kyung-mi) upheld the lower court's verdict acquitting former Ministry of Education manager A, who was charged with abuse of authority, instigation of forgery of private documents, and instigation of use of forged private documents.

The court explained the reason for dismissing the prosecutor's appeal, stating, "There is no error in the lower court's judgment that violated the rules of logic and experience, exceeded the limits of free evaluation of evidence, or misunderstood the principles of the adversarial system, direct examination, and the establishment of the crime of abuse of authority."

A, who was in charge of textbook policy at the Ministry of Education, was prosecuted for ordering a subordinate to arbitrarily stamp the chairman's seal on the editorial committee's meeting minutes during the process of modifying 213 places, including changing "Establishment of the Republic of Korea" in the 2018 elementary 6th grade first semester social studies textbook written in 2016 to "Establishment of the Government of the Republic of Korea" in 2017.

The first trial court found A guilty and sentenced him to eight months in prison with a two-year probation. The court stated, "It is recognized that A excluded the editorial committee chairman who opposed the textbook revision from decision-making and appointed some professors and teachers to revise the textbook," and added, "It is difficult to justify that A, who previously responded to complaints pointing out the phrase 'Establishment of the Republic of Korea' by saying 'no problem,' suddenly acted in the opposite way under the new government."

However, the second trial court acquitted A of the charges. The court stated, "The charge of abuse of authority against A is not legally established," and "The charges of instigation of forgery of private documents and instigation of use of forged private documents were not proven."

The Supreme Court also found no problem with the second trial's ruling and confirmed the acquittal.