South Korean Supreme Court overturns insult conviction over online comment

The Supreme Court of Korea has overturned a lower court's decision to convict a man of insult for leaving a derogatory comment online. The case originated in February 2022, when the defendant posted a comment calling Shin Dae-cheol, the leader of the band Sinawe, a ‘thug’ (yang-a-chi) in response to an article regarding Shin’s public support for a presidential candidate.

While lower courts had previously fined the individual 500,000 won, ruling that the term was used to disparage Shin’s social standing, the Supreme Court ruled that the comment did not constitute a criminal level of insult. The court stated that the remark appeared to be an unrefined expression of negative or critical opinion regarding Shin’s political stance and the media coverage of it, rather than an expression intended to severely infringe upon his personal dignity or cause extreme humiliation.

The Supreme Court emphasized that criminal punishment should be applied cautiously when dealing with expressions that are merely coarse or unrefined, and has sent the case back to the Jeju District Court for retrial.