Supreme Court Confirms Fine for Former Yongsan Police Chief Kim Byung-chan in National Intelligence Service Comment Manipulation Perjury Case

Kim Byung-chan, former chief of Seoul Yongsan Police Station (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The fine against former Seoul Yongsan Police Chief Kim Byung-chan, who was indicted for perjury in the trial related to the ‘National Intelligence Service Comment Manipulation Incident,’ has been finalized.

On the 19th, the Supreme Court Division 2 (Presiding Justice Park Sang-ok) announced that in the appeal trial of former Chief Kim, who was indicted for perjury and official secret leakage, it upheld the lower court’s ruling that found him guilty only of perjury and sentenced him to a fine of 2 million won.

Former Chief Kim was accused of perjury after appearing as a witness in the trial of former Seoul Police Chief Kim Yong-pan, who was indicted in 2012 for comment manipulation. It was investigated that although he informed the NIS liaison officer about the analysis of the laptop belonging to NIS employee A, who was involved in the comment incident, he falsely testified in former Chief Kim Yong-pan’s trial that he did not know A was an NIS employee.

The first and second trials found former Chief Kim guilty of perjury and sentenced him to a fine of 2 million won. However, he was acquitted of the official secret leakage charge. The court judged that the information he conveyed to the NIS side was either not significant enough to affect the police investigation function if disclosed externally or had already been reported in the media, thus the crime of official secret leakage was not established.

The Supreme Court also agreed with the lower court’s judgment. The bench stated, “The lower court did not err in its legal interpretation regarding the establishment of perjury and official secret leakage,” and dismissed both the prosecutor’s and the defendant’s appeals.

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