A Young Man Found Guilty for Placing Posters Critical of President Moon at a University Campus

2020-6-23, Chosun Ilbo  [TRANSLATION]

A man in his 20s who was accused of “breaking and entering” was fined after attaching posters criticizing President Moon Jae-in at a university campus.

On June 23, 2020, Judge Hong Seong-wook (홍성욱) of the Cheonan region in the Daejeon District Court, fined ₩500,000 ($415) to Kim (25), who was charged with breaking and entering a building.  The university campus is open to public, yet the judge found Kim guilty. 

Kim, a member of the youth group Jeondaehyup (전대협) [the name itself is a satire as it is the opposite in ideology of old, pro-North Korea Jeondaehyup], entered the Cheonan Campus at Dankook University in the early morning of November 24, 2019, and placed [satire] posters critical of the president and the current government at the student hall and gymnasium.  The posters’ contents included: “My (Xi Jinping) faithful dog Moon Jae-ang will completely prepare [South Korea] to become a colony of China by causing the withdrawal of the U.S. troops by destroying the South Korea-U.S.-Japan alliance after the [April 2020] General Election, which they will win after passing Gongsoocheo (공수처) and Semi-Interlocked Proportional Representation System (연동형비례제) legislations.

[Note:  Gongsoocheo is an investigative body targeting senior government officials, such as judges.  It is controversial and is feared it would be used as an instrument of intimidation similar to North Korea’s Ministry of State Security.  It effectively ends the separations of power within the South Korean government by giving the president power over the judicial branch.  For more on Gongsoocheo, see here and here.  The Semi-Interlocked Proportional Representation System is a new way of calculating party-appointed representatives, with the effect of increasing their number at the expense of directly elected representatives. For more, see here, here, and here.]

[Truncated] The Daejeon Prosecutor’s Office Cheonan Branch also charged Kim with a summary indictment and a fine of ₩1,000,000.

[Truncated] An official at the university said, “I don’t think it was a crime…and there has been no harm…Whether its local residents, employees, delivery personnel, or others–they come and go without any restrictions.”  The university officials gave a statement on June 20, 2020 at the court as a prosecutor’s witness and stated, “We do not want to punish (Kim).  There was no damage.”  

Kim said he would appeal the ruling.

Source:  https://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2020/06/23/2020062303555.html