Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, has been acquitted in the second trial of the public election law violation case, while the 'I am a perpetrator' challenge participated by Park Soo-young of the People's Power is gaining attention.
On the 28th, Park posted on his Facebook announcing his participation in the challenge, saying, 'I am a perpetrator. This is because my third son, OKONG, enlarged the photo.' He then nominated Park Seong-hoon, a member of the People's Power, as the next participant in the challenge.
Such participation in the challenge appears to directly confront the second trial court's ruling, which interpreted Lee's so-called 'golf photo manipulation' remarks as meaning 'the photo was enlarged,' and seems aimed at strengthening public opinion warfare. Park is also the person who presented the 'enlarged photo,' which formed the basis for the prosecution's accusations of election law violations against Lee.
The 'I am a perpetrator challenge' shared by Park has been spreading online, primarily among supporters of the conservative camp, since the 26th, following the appellate trial ruling regarding Lee.
Earlier, the second trial court (Seoul High Court Criminal Division 6-2) overturned the first trial ruling and acquitted Lee on charges of publicizing false facts, including that he had never played golf with the late Kim Moon-ki, who was the practical overseer of the Dongdaemun development project while Lee was serving as the mayor of Seongnam.
In December 2021, while being a presidential candidate, Lee appeared on a broadcast and said, 'The People's Power took pictures of four people and released them as if I had played golf. When I checked, they had shown part of our group's photo taken together. It was manipulated.' In response, the second trial court judged that the remark 'manipulated' could also be interpreted as emphasizing that 'the photo was enlarged,' and could not be solely defined as meaning that he did not play golf with Kim.