Prosecution Resumes Recovery of Former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook's Assets After 3 Years... 700 Million KRW Still Unpaid

Recovery of Approximately 2.6 Million KRW in Autobiography Royalties for August and November

Former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook. Photo by Asia Economy DB

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] The prosecution has resumed the execution of the fine collection against former Prime Minister Han Myeong-suk, who was sentenced to two years in prison in 2015 for illegal political fund receipt and was released after serving her term, after a three-year hiatus.

According to the prosecution on the 15th, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office collected 2,518,640 won from former Prime Minister Han last August, followed by an additional 77,400 won this month. The money collected by the prosecution is known to be royalties from former Prime Minister Han's autobiography 'The Truth of Han Myeong-suk,' published at the end of June.

The prosecution, which had been executing the collection of fines against former Prime Minister Han annually from 2016 to 2019, had not made any additional collections for nearly three years since January 2019. Previously, the prosecution seized 2.5 million won in cash in 2016, 150 million won in lease deposit in 2017, and 1.5 million won in bank deposits in January 2019, and reportedly received 17.6 million won in payments in 2018.

As former Prime Minister Han's autobiography was published and generated royalty income, the prosecution resumed the execution of the fine collection, but due to lower-than-expected book sales, only about 2.6 million won has been collected so far. This corresponds to royalties from approximately 1,444 copies sold of the autobiography priced at 18,000 won, assuming a 10% royalty rate.

Although the prosecution resumed the seizure of royalties from former Prime Minister Han's autobiography after nearly three years, about 708.2 million won in fines remain unpaid.

Former Prime Minister Han was prosecuted in 2007 on charges of receiving illegal political funds amounting to over 900 million won from Han Man-ho, former CEO of Hanshin Construction, and in 2015, the Supreme Court confirmed a two-year prison sentence and a fine of approximately 883 million won. In the trial, a 10 million won check from Han Man-ho, which was used by former Prime Minister Han's younger sister as a jeonse (long-term deposit) fund, became decisive evidence for conviction.

Despite the Supreme Court's confirmation of former Prime Minister Han's receipt of illegal political funds based on clear evidence, movements to so-called 'save Han Myeong-suk' continue within the ruling party.

Park Beom-gye, who became Minister of Justice as a ruling party lawmaker, ordered a joint inspection by the Ministry of Justice and prosecution earlier this year into allegations of witness tampering by prosecutors in Han Myeong-suk's investigation team. However, after a four-month joint inspection, two prosecutors from the investigation team were cleared of charges and received no disciplinary action in July.

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