by WorldTribune Staff, October 23, 2026 — Real World News
Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large Morse Tan pleaded not guilty in the Seoul Central District Court on Friday to criminal defamation charges filed by South Korean authorities.
Prosecutors allege that Tan spread false claims during a June 2025 news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, and later at a church gathering in Seoul, alleging that South Korean President Lee Jae-Myung was involved in a violent teenage crime and sent to a juvenile detention facility.
Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large Morse Tan
Tan has been barred from leaving South Korea since arriving in late May 2026 to observe local elections, and a Seoul judge recently rejected his request to lift the travel ban.
Tan’s legal team argued that South Korean courts lack jurisdiction over statements made by a U.S. citizen on American soil, that the remarks were protected speech, and that there was no intent to defame or knowledge of false information.
“Everyone, thank you sincerely for coming here and for supporting and backing me. I know that among those who came here, some came from very distant places such as Busan and Daegu, and I am deeply grateful,” Tan said through an interpreter, according to a computer-aided English translation of a Korean broadcast from outside the court.
“I pleaded not guilty in court,” he said.
“By every measure, the trial now under way is completely wrong,” Tan said. “How can a U.S. citizen be tried in a Korean court over remarks he made in the United States? And how can the very act of asking a question be considered illegal in Korea?”
Tan, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice under President Donald Trump and former dean of Liberty University Law School, was indicted under South Korea’s Criminal Act and the Information and Communications Network Act.
Tan, ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice from December 2019 to January 2021, entered South Korea on May 28. Yonhap News Agency reported three successive departure bans. A statement issued Oct. 10 by TPUSA Faith, the religious outreach branch of Turning Point USA, says the bans now extend through Nov. 15.
Tan earlier this month delivered a eulogy in South Korea for his grandmother who passed away in the United States. “I really wanted to be there to honor her,” he said in a clip posted on social media. “My grandmother would pray for every member of the family, down to the great-grandchildren, every single day.”
On Oct. 11, Tan preached at Gwanghwamun Church in Seoul. “There’s even a lawsuit against me, one of Trump’s former ambassadors,” he said. “But as I tell people in America, this shows how much the rule of law and justice in Korea has broken down.”
On Aug. 13, Reps. Young Kim of California, Brian Mast of Florida, Michael Cloud of Texas, and Christopher H. Smith of New Jersey wrote to South Korean Ambassador Kang Kyung-Wha. “We respectfully urge the ROK government to lift the exit ban on Ambassador Tan,” the letter said.
Sam Brownback, the former Kansas governor and U.S. senator who served as ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom in the first Trump Administration, told The Epoch Times it was “unbelievable that Morse is on trial in South Korea.” The religious liberty advocate has previously called for an end to Tan’s travel ban.
The TPUSA Faith statement, signed by Pastor Lucas Miles, urged South Korea “to lift the travel restrictions on Ambassador Tan without delay and to withdraw the speech-related prosecutions.”
