Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol Withdraws Lawsuit Against Hankyoreh Reporter Over 'Yoon Joong-chun Villa Entertainment Allegation' Report

Hankyoreh Front Page Five Days After Apology

On February 10th, Yoon Seok-yeol, Prosecutor General, delivered a greeting at the nationwide district prosecutors and election chief prosecutors meeting held at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol withdrew his lawsuit on the 26th against reporters from the Hankyoreh newspaper who reported allegations that he received entertainment from construction businessman Yoon Joong-chun. This came just five days after Hankyoreh acknowledged and apologized through its print edition that the report was inaccurate.

The Supreme Prosecutors' Office announced in the afternoon, "This morning, the Prosecutor General sent a withdrawal of the lawsuit to the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office regarding the reporters from Hankyoreh who reported allegations against the Prosecutor General."

Last October, Hankyoreh21 reported under headlines such as "Yoon Seok-yeol also entertained multiple times at the villa" and "Prosecutors covered up Yoon Joong-chun's testimony," stating that the Past Affairs Investigation Team of the prosecution concluded the reinvestigation without efforts to verify facts despite seeing the Prosecutor General’s name in the investigation records of Yoon’s villa in Wonju.

Subsequently, Prosecutor General Yoon filed a defamation lawsuit against the Hankyoreh reporters who made the report, citing defamation by publication.

Earlier, during the National Assembly inspection in October last year, Prosecutor General Yoon indicated that he would consider withdrawing the lawsuit if an apology was published on the front page of the newspaper, similar to the way the allegations were prominently reported on the front page.

On the 22nd, Hankyoreh acknowledged the inaccuracy of the report through a front-page article, stating, "Words such as 'multiple times' and 'entertainment' were used in the headline and elsewhere without being in the report, and no follow-up reports were made for several months after the initial report," and apologized to readers and Prosecutor General Yoon.

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