More Suppression of Free Speech in South Korea: Arrests of Kim Se-ui, Kang Yong-seok, and Kim Yong-ho; Cho Kuk’s Defamation Lawsuits Against Lee Jong-won, Kim Sang-hyun, Woo Jong-chang

2021-9-20, Tara O

On September 7, 2021, the police arrested 3 people running Hoverlab (Garo Sero yeonguso), a popular YouTube channel with over 700,000 subscribers:  Kim Se-ui (김세의), formerly a journalist with MBC, Kang Yong-seok (강용석), a lawyer, and Kim Yong-ho (김용호), a journalist covering the entertainment industry.

The police dismantled the door lock to the residence where Kim Se-ui and his mother were.  When the lock dropped to the ground, the police came inside to arrest Kim Se-ui at 7:46 pm on September 7, 2021.  The police said Kim is being arrested for charges of defaming and insulting the disgraced former Justice Minister Cho Kuk (조국), Cho Min (조민) (Cho Kuk’s daughter), Cho Won (조원) (Cho Kuk’s son), Unification Minister Lee In-yong (이인영), Lee Gyu-chan (이규찬) (Lee In-yong’s son), Bae Wook-won, and Kim Byung-wook (김병욱). (3:21)   The police arrested Kang Yong-seok soon after at his residence, and arrested Kim Yong-ho earlier that day.

Kim Se-ui, Kang Yong-seok, and Kim Yong-ho were all released on September 9, 2021 after about 46 hours in detention.  The police applied for arrest warrants for the three to keep them detained, but the prosecutors rejected them, stating there is no concern about evidence tampering or flight.  Various newspapers state that the police requested they go to the police station for investigations, but they did not comply.  Kim Se-ui, however, states that what they left out is that they have submitted statements explaining their absences through their lawyer four times.

When the story of Cho Kuk’s daughter Cho Min getting accepted to the competitive Yonsei University as well as a medical school based on forged documents about her internships, there was a public uproar that culminated in large scale demonstrations demanding his removal from the position of Justice Minister.  Cho’s son delaying his military draft multiple times also did not help.  Cho Kuk and his family’s massive scandal were top news stories for some time.

Cho Kuk vowed defamation lawsuits, and indeed, multiple people were sued directly or indirectly.  Lee Jong-won (이종원), who runs a YouTube channel AforU (아포유), which normally covers real estate, was also sued for defamation.  Instead of Cho Kuk, it was Lee Hae-chan (이해찬), then-leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, who, in April 2020, sued Lee Jong-won for “defaming” former Justice Minister Cho Kuk.

Lee Jong-won of AforU

In July 2019, Moon Jae-in’s Blue House labeled AforU and Lee the “main culprit of fake news,” after he posted a sped-up video (48 hours to 10 minutes) of the G-20 summit in Japan in 2019, which showed that Moon was mostly absent when other leaders of the G-20 countries were present at meetings. See here for the video (before it disappears).  It made people wonder what Moon was doing there, if he was mostly not present to represent the country.  Lee was so shocked and scared by the Blue House’s designation and pressure that he stopped making videos for two months.

Cho Kuk also sued Kim Sang-hyun (김상현), the owner of Gukdae Ddeokbokki (국대떡볶이), a spicy rice cake franchise, claiming that Kim defamed Cho using false information on August 1, 2020, and posted the details on his Facebook account.  Cho made an issue of Kim posting on his Facebook on September 24, 2019 that Cho Kuk received money from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) through Co-Link Private Equity.  Cho’s family, including his wife and two adult children, committed to invest ₩7.455 billion ($7 million) in Co-Link’s “Blue Core Value Up Private Equity Fund,” beginning with the actual investment of ₩1.5 billion ($1.4 million).  The amount committed was more than Cho’s reported assets of ₩5.64 billion ($5.3 million).  This raises questions about why Cho’s family would invest more than his family’s total assets, and where the additional $1.7 million would come from. Additionally, the little-known Co-Link was receiving a huge infusion of funding from China’s state-controlled, therefore CCP-controlled, entity.  Co-Link and China’s Jiangsu Province Huakun Science and Technology Development (public) Corporation signed an MOU in 2016 for the latter to invest ₩600 billion ($525 million).  The Co-Link connection was one of many issues of Cho’s massive corruption under investigation at that time.  See here for details on Cho Kuk and Co-Link. Cho also pointed out that Kim called Moon Jae-in a communist.

Cho also posted that he sued Channel A’s journalist Cho Yong-min (조영민) and TV Chosun’s journalist Jung Min-jin (정민진) for reporting that Cho Kuk visited Ulsan city to rally support for Song Cheol-ho (송철호), President Moon Jae-in’s close associate, to be the mayor, when Cho was the Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs (which provides oversight over police, prosecutors, and judges, among others).  For articles on the suspicion of the Blue House’s manipulation of the 2018 mayoral elections in Ulsan and elsewhere, see here. 

Cho Kuk also sued Woo Jong-chang (우종창), a veteran journalist who runs a YouTube channel Lies and Truth (거짓과 진실), which is dedicated to revealing the truth behind the unjust impeachment of Park Geun-hye.  On July 17, 2020, Judge Ma Seong-yeong (마성영) of the Seoul Northern District Criminal Court imprisoned Woo for 8 months for “defamation.”  See here for details.  Woo has served his term and is released from prison.

For details on Cho Kuk’s scandals, including corruption, subversion, and the China connection, see here. 

Cho Kuk, despite stepping down as Justice Minister after only a month due to public uproar, remains a powerful figure.  His numerous lawsuits against YouTubers and other citizens seem to get plenty of resources and attention, and suppresses freedom of speech.  The powerful figures muzzling citizens through lawfare also raise concerns about human rights violations in South Korea.