Kim Tae-woo, Gangseo District Mayor, Convicted of Official Secrets Leakage... Loses Mayoral Position

Kim Tae-woo, Mayor of Gangseo-gu, Seoul. [Photo by Yonhap News]

Kim Tae-woo, the mayor of Gangseo District Office in Seoul, who was indicted for leaking official secrets, has been sentenced to imprisonment, resulting in the loss of his mayoral position.

In the case of elected public officials, if a sentence of a fine of 1 million won or more is confirmed for violating election laws, or if a prison sentence or higher is confirmed for other charges, they lose their office.

The Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice Park Jeong-hwa) on the 18th upheld the lower court's ruling sentencing Mayor Kim to one year in prison with a two-year probation in the final appeal for charges of leaking official secrets.

The court stated the reason for dismissing the appeal, saying, "There is no error in the lower court's judgment that found the defendant guilty of the charges, nor any violation of the principles of logic and experience that would exceed the limits of free evaluation of evidence, nor any misinterpretation of the legal principles regarding 'official secrets under the law' or justifiable acts related to the crime of leaking official secrets."

Kim, who was a member of the Blue House's Special Inspection Team, was tried for exposing misconduct information he learned in the course of his official duties from December 2018 to February 2019, including ▲ allegations of bribery against Woo Yoon-geun, Ambassador to Russia ▲ misconduct reports on Kim Sang-gyun, Chairman of Korea Rail Network Authority ▲ corruption reports involving Airport Railroad employees ▲ inspection materials related to the leak of KT&G situation reports ▲ and special inspection team intelligence reports.

The trial focused on whether the intelligence reports leaked by Mayor Kim constituted official secrets under Article 127 of the Criminal Act.

Traditionally, the Supreme Court has held that the crime of leaking official secrets is not about protecting the secret itself but about protecting the interests endangered by the breach of a public official's duty of confidentiality, namely the state's functions threatened by the disclosure of secrets. It has also ruled that official secrets refer to secrets acquired in the course of official duties by the person in their position or capacity, so facts within the scope of duties are included regardless of how the secret was obtained, but secrets learned unrelated to official duties are not included.

Earlier, the first and second trial courts judged that the intelligence reports in question were official secrets acquired by Mayor Kim during his duties as a special inspection team member and were non-public matters worthy of protection as secrets. However, the part involving the leak of photos related to the KT&G situation report was not considered an official secret.

The first trial court in January last year recognized Kim's guilt for leaking official secrets on four items excluding the KT&G case and sentenced him to one year in prison with two years probation.

Both the prosecution and Mayor Kim appealed, citing factual errors and excessive sentencing, but the appeals were rejected.

The second trial court stated the reason for dismissing the appeal, saying, "The case is very serious, and the motive for the crime does not look good," and "The original sentence does not seem too heavy or too light."

The Supreme Court also found no problem with this judgment.

Mayor Kim is known for drawing public attention by revealing that former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk, while serving as the Blue House's Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs, knew about allegations of misconduct against former Busan Deputy Mayor Yoo Jae-soo but stopped the special inspection team's investigation.

He ran as the People Power Party candidate for Gangseo District mayor in last June's local elections and was elected.

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