South Korea's Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a lower court's acquittal of leftist Democratic Party presidential frontrunner Lee Jae-Myung on charges of election law violation.
The decision now casts doubt on Lee's eligibility to run for the presidency and could be a huge blow to China, viewed by many relatively conservative Koreans as a major if shadowy force in politics and media.
Made-in-China election systems have thrown into question the results of major elections in 2020 and 2024 but have never been officially investigated.
In March, an appeals court had cleared Lee in the election violation case. A lower court had found Lee guilty of violating election law and sentenced him to one year in prison, suspended for two years.
The Thursday ruling does not immediately disqualify Lee as a candidate in the June 3 presidential election, as the retrial verdict is unlikely to be reached before Election Day.
"The Supreme Court’s ruling — which found that the appellate court misinterpreted parts of the law, effectively implying Lee’s guilt on some charges — is expected to reignite political debate over his suitability as a candidate, with less than five weeks remaining before the election," The Korea Times noted.
Under the relevant law, anyone fined 1 million won ($699.30) or more for violating the nation's election law is barred from running for public office for the next five years or up to 10 years if sentenced to imprisonment.
[Election Security (including Huawei voting machines) remains a primary unreported and uninvestigated issue as a new generation of activist students are highlighting.]
Meanwhile, Han Duck-Soo, who had become acting president after Yoon Suk-Yeol was impeached and had taken part in phone conversations with President Donald Trump, announced on Thursday that he was stepping down and was expected to launch his campaign for the presidency on Friday.South Korea is now at risk. And if Korea falls, the free world will feel it too.
We call on our allies to care. To stand with us. Because democracy, once lost, is not easily regained.#ElectionFraud #GlobalElectionFraud #SpyChip #Dominion #ChineseSoftware #StopTheSteal… pic.twitter.com/sMUiAsgBa8 — Youth Election Fraud Fighters (@yeff_korea_2025) April 29, 2025
"I have two paths ahead of me. One is completing the heavy responsibility that I handle now. The other is putting down that responsibility and taking a heavier responsibility," Han said. "I've finally determined to put down my post to do what I can and what I have to help overcome the crises facing us."
Han was also at odds with the opposition over his refusal to appoint three more justices to the Constitutional Court and for not supporting bills targeting Yoon and his wife Kim Keon Hee.
Asian news commentator Edo Natio noted in a post to LinkedIn:
There have been two dramatic developments in the past 2 hours in the Presidential election to replace former President Yoon.
1. In a final review of the election campaign fraud trial of pro-CCP/pro-North Korea, Democratic Party Leader Lee Myung-Jae, the South Korean Supreme Court issued its ruling on the prosecutor's appeal. The Seoul District Court had originally found Lee guilty and sentenced him to one year in prison with a two-year suspension. If that case were finalized, Lee would be ineligible to run for President. On Lee's appeal of that ruling to the Seoul High Court, the appeals court reversed the lower court ruling and found him not guilty. The prosecutors then appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court, which just ruled that the High Court had made several serious errors in interpretation of the relevant law as applied to the facts of this case, vacated the High Court verdict, and ordered them to conduct a quick retrial. As that will likely take more than the month remaining before the election, Lee will keep running, but now under a very dark cloud.
2. The Prime Minister, Han Duck-Soo, who became the acting President after Yoon was impeached last December until he was himself impeached just a few weeks later, which the Constitutional Court then rejected, allowing Han to return as the Acting President, has just resigned as Acting President and Prime Minister in order to run in the June 3rd presidential election. PM Han may very well now be adopted by the PPP (Yoon's previous party - Han is NOT currently a member) in order to consolidate all of the conservative voters. Critical to the election, Han, more so than any of the other candidates, has the strongest appeal to the 20% of voters in Korea that are centrist, not aligned with Lee's DP or former Yoon's PPP. This is a formula for victory. For those who thought Lee was a shoo-in to win on June 3, some urgent recalculations are in order.
A very bad day in Beijing and Pyongyang I suspect. However, prominent commentator Dr. Tara O, founder of the East Asia Research Center pointed out the perilous state at present of South Korean politics:
Acting President Han Duck-soo announced his resignation to run for president on 2025-5-1. Then DPK introduced a bill to impeach the next person in line, Choi Sang-mok, Finance Min & Acting PM. So Choi quickly resigned. Next in line is Education Minister Lee Ju-ho. The DPK may try to impeach him too. The DPK is using impeachment as a weapon to paralyze state affairs & sow confusion in the society — that would be insurrection.
Acting President Han Duck-soo announced his resignation to run for president on 2025-5-1. Then DPK introduced a bill to impeach the next person in line, Choi Sang-mok, Finance Min & Acting PM. So Choi quickly resigned. Next in line is Education Minister Lee Ju-ho. The DPK may try… https://t.co/jbO31Rkk98
— Tara O (@DrTaraO) May 1, 2025
Support Free Press Foundation
