‘Kim Gun-hee Recording’ Kim Gun-hee Non-Prosecution vs Lee Myung-soo Prosecution... Reasons for Different Judgments

Sent to Prosecution for Violating Police Communications Privacy Act
Left Cell Phone in Bathroom for 3 Minutes
Intentional Secret Recording Acknowledged
Recorded Transcript May Not Be Used as Evidence in Future↑

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Gyumin] The police investigation results related to the recording of First Lady Kim Keon-hee, wife of President Yoon Suk-yeol, have been released. The case involving Mrs. Kim was dismissed without prosecution, while the case involving reporter Lee Myung-soo of Seoul Voice, who made the recording, was forwarded to the prosecution. The reason for the differing outcomes is that different charges were applied to reporter Lee, unlike Mrs. Kim.

On the 23rd, the Anti-Corruption and Public Crime Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency referred reporter Lee Myung-soo to the prosecution on charges of violating the Communications Privacy Protection Act. However, they decided not to prosecute on charges of trespassing and violating the Public Official Election Act. Earlier, on the 10th, the police had dismissed the case against Mrs. Kim, who was accused of violating the Public Official Election Act (bribery for illegal use of broadcasting/newspaper, etc.), due to insufficient evidence.

Through the police investigation, both Mrs. Kim and reporter Lee were cleared of charges related to violating the Public Official Election Act. According to the investigation result notification received by the civic group Peace Tree from the police regarding Mrs. Kim’s Public Official Election Act violation accusation, the police acknowledged that ▲ Mrs. Kim paid reporter Lee a lecture fee of 1.05 million won ▲ and that reporter Lee’s statement, “If we work together, I will give you 100 million won,” was factual. However, the police judged that the lecture fee was payment for an actual lecture, not for favorable coverage of the presidential election, and found no clues to explain the reason for the 100 million won payment statement, thus explaining the reason for non-prosecution of Mrs. Kim. In other words, the police concluded that the 1.05 million won was unrelated to election campaigning.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The reason reporter Lee’s case was forwarded to the prosecution, unlike Mrs. Kim’s, is that the police judged that his intentional act of secretly recording conversations with Mrs. Kim was recognized. The controversial recordings related to Mrs. Kim are broadly divided into two: the “7-hour recording” of phone calls between reporter Lee and Mrs. Kim, and about 3 hours of conversation recorded last July at the Cobana Contents office in Seocho-gu (hereinafter the “3-hour conversation”). The police discovered circumstances in the 3-hour conversation where reporter Lee left his seat to go to the restroom and intentionally left the phone recording the conversation in the office, recognizing this as intentional. Under the current Communications Privacy Protection Act, secretly recording a conversation without participating intentionally is illegal.

This police decision is expected to influence future recording-related cases. According to reporter Lee’s side, if the 3-hour conversation recording is recognized as violating the Communications Privacy Protection Act, it will be considered “illegally obtained evidence” and cannot be used as evidence in other cases. If the complainant files an objection to the non-prosecution decision in Mrs. Kim’s case and the prosecution requests supplementary investigation from the police, the police will not be able to use the recording as evidence to prove charges during the investigation process.

Earlier, reporter Lee’s legal representative, lawyer Ryu Jae-yul, submitted the recording to the police on the 5th and said, “The recording contains many sensitive contents, including appearances by Mrs. Kim,” and “It could have ripple effects on other investigations related to Mrs. Kim.”

Regarding this referral decision, lawyer Ryu said, “The issue has become clear as the ‘3 minutes in the restroom,’ but it seems the prosecution will judge this as a charge and indict,” and “If the case proceeds to trial, we plan to assert reporter Lee’s innocence.”

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