Supreme Court Dismisses Request to Invalidate Yang Jeong-suk's Election for 'Property Report Omission'

Regarding Yang Jeong-suk, a Reform New Party lawmaker who was a proportional representation candidate for the Together Citizens' Party during the 21st National Assembly election held in 2020, the Democratic Party of Korea claimed that she omitted some assets in her declaration and requested confirmation that this constituted grounds for disqualification. However, the Supreme Court dismissed the request.

On the 9th, the Supreme Court's 3rd Division (Presiding Justice Eom Sang-pil) dismissed the Democratic Party of Korea's request for confirmation of disqualification against Yang. The Supreme Court stated the reason for dismissal as, "There is no evidence to recognize that the defendant (Yang) made a false asset declaration at the time of candidate registration." Election invalidation lawsuits are conducted under the Supreme Court's single-instance system.

Yang Jeong-suk, member of the Reform New Party (Photo by Yonhap News)

Yang was elected as a member of the National Assembly as a proportional representation candidate for the Together Citizens' Party, a satellite party of the Democratic Party of Korea, in the 21st general election. However, controversy arose when it was revealed that around March 2020, about a month before the election, she omitted the proceeds from the sale of assets under a borrowed name and shared real estate shares in the public official election candidate asset declaration form submitted during candidate registration.

In response, the Democratic Party of Korea argued that Yang's omission of some assets in the public official election candidate asset declaration form did not qualify as an asset declaration under Article 10-2, Paragraph 1 of the Public Official Ethics Act, and thus constituted grounds for disqualification. They filed a request for confirmation of disqualification against Yang.

However, the Supreme Court ruled that Yang's omission of six-tenths of the shares in a complex building located in Songpa-gu, Seoul, could not be considered a false asset declaration. The Supreme Court stated, "Although the remarks column of the asset declaration form only indicated 'shared' without separately specifying the six-tenths share, the value of Yang's share of the Songpa-dong building and its land at that time was close to the approximately 1.26 billion won recorded in the asset declaration form." Furthermore, regarding the omission of the proceeds from the sale of an officetel in Yongsan, the court added, "Since the property was owned under her younger brother's name and the proceeds from the sale were held in an account and reported, it cannot be considered a false asset declaration."

Relatedly, Yang was prosecuted and brought to trial for violating the Public Official Election Act due to false asset declaration, but in November of last year, the Supreme Court finalized a verdict of not guilty.