"Moon Jae-in Communist" Go Young-ju, No Liability for Compensation in Retrial

Former President Moon Files 100 Million Won Compensation Lawsuit
Last Year, Supreme Court Also Stated "Merely Expressing Opinion or Position"

A ruling in the retrial has found that former Broadcasting Culture Promotion Agency Chairman Ko Young-joo is not liable for damages after calling former President Moon Jae-in a "communist" at a gathering held at the Korea Press Center International Conference Hall on January 4, 2013, immediately following the 18th presidential election. This lawsuit was filed by former President Moon against Ko.

Ko Young-joo, former Chairman of the Korea Broadcasting Culture Promotion Foundation.

The Seoul Central District Court Civil Appeals Division 1 (Presiding Judge Ma Seong-young) ruled on the 8th that the damages claim filed by former President Moon in 2015 against Ko was dismissed. Earlier, in September last year, the Supreme Court had issued a ruling denying Ko's liability for damages.

The court stated regarding Ko’s remarks, "They are part of a verification process through debate on former President Moon’s political ideology," and judged that "it is not appropriate to evaluate that the expression exceeded the limits of freedom of speech by highlighting only the negative aspects of social evaluation."

At a New Year's greeting event of a conservative civic group in January 2013, Ko introduced the Burim case, which he investigated as a public security prosecutor in 1982, saying, "The people connected to the Blue House Busan network during the Roh Moo-hyun administration are all related to the Burim case. They are all communists, involved in communist activities. Therefore, I was convinced that candidate Moon Jae-in is also a communist, and if he becomes president, it is only a matter of time before our country turns red. I cannot express how fortunate it is that our country has been able to avoid becoming communist, and I am so grateful to all of you who have taken the lead in this matter."

He also mentioned, "The Burim case was not a democratization movement but a communist movement, and candidate Moon was well aware of this." In response, former President Moon filed a lawsuit in 2015 against Ko, claiming damages of 100 million won, stating that "the remarks without reasonable grounds severely damaged my social reputation."

The first-instance court ruled that "the social reputation and standing of former President Moon were significantly damaged," ordering Ko to pay 30 million won in damages.

The second-instance court also recognized liability for damages due to illegal acts (defamation), stating, "Considering the negative and fatal meaning of the term ‘communist’ in our reality of inter-Korean confrontation and the existence of the National Security Law, even if the plaintiff is a public figure, excessively emotional and humiliating language cannot be recognized as freedom of expression." However, the court reduced the damages to 10 million won.

The Supreme Court stated, "The remark ‘communist’ should be seen as an opinion or expression of position based on the defendant’s (Ko’s) experience," and "it is difficult to regard it as a statement of specific facts that would damage the plaintiff’s honor," and sent the case back to the second instance.

Ko had earlier been acquitted in a criminal trial finalized last February, where the same remarks were an issue.

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