If the Seoul Central District Court’s sentence is upheld by the Supreme Court, the People Power Party could have to repay close to US$27 million in government-reimbursed funds used for his campaign
A monitor in Seoul Station’s waiting area plays a news broadcast of the sentencing of former President Yoon Suk-yeol on July 27, 2026. (Yonhap)
Former President Yoon Suk-yeol on Monday was sentenced to 18 months in prison with a three-year stay of execution for disseminating false information during the 2022 presidential race. As this was only the first trial on the charge, if the Supreme Court upholds this sentence, his election victory will be invalidated and the main opposition People Power Party must return to the National Election Commission the 39.7 billion won in government-reimbursed funds used for his campaign. Under Korean election law, presidential candidates are reimbursed for 100% of election expenses if they are elected or receive at least 15% of the vote, but the entire sum must be repaid if the victory is later nullified. Elected officials who have been fined at least 1 million won for violating election law are subject to having their election invalidated.The Supreme Court verdict could come as early as January next year.All the former president’s remarks brought before the court by Min Joung-kie’s special counsel team were determined to be falsehoods.The court found Yoon guilty on charges of disseminating false information for stating that he had never introduced an attorney surnamed Lee, who formerly worked at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, to the former Yongsan Regional Tax Office chief Yoon Woo-jin, who was investigated by prosecutors in 2012 on suspicion of receiving bribes, at an invitational forum held at the Kwanhun Club in December 2021. He was also found to have lied when he said at a ceremony for the launch of the Buddhist Leaders Forum on Jan. 1, 2022, that he was introduced to the shaman Jeon Seong-bae, aka Geonjin, by People Power Party officials and had never met him with his wife, Kim Keon-hee.Yoon’s legal team released a statement announcing its intention to appeal the verdict immediately after its release. The statement claims the verdict is “simply a copy of the one-sided claims made by the special counsel team” and that it “does not align with Supreme Court precedent regarding the ‘overall meaning and purpose of a statement,’ the most important element in a decision on the crime of publishing false information under the Public Official Election Act.”By Oh Yeon-seo, staff reporterPlease direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
