Police concluded there was no charge due to insufficient evidence against Chae Il, former head of the Defense Media Agency, who was accused of sedition propaganda.
According to police on the 5th, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Security Investigation Division decided on no charges due to insufficient evidence on the 24th regarding the former chief Chae's case involving sedition propaganda and abuse of authority, and did not refer it to prosecutors.
The former chief Chae was accused of promoting soldiers to approve and justify insurrection in connection with the front page of the Defense Daily, which reported the Dec. 3 emergency martial law as "a highly political act of governance" by quoting former President Yoon Suk-yeol's address to the public on Dec. 12 last year. The Defense Daily is a military security specialist daily published by the Defense Media Agency under the Ministry of National Defense.
Chae was also accused of abusing authority by not allowing the publication of an op-ed analyzing the outcomes of the Group of Seven (G7) summit after the Lee Jae-myung administration took office, or by arbitrarily deleting content related to the Dec. 3 emergency martial law from the Ministry of National Defense Minister's inauguration remarks, thereby making subordinates perform duties they were not obligated to perform or obstructing the exercise of their rights.
In the notice of investigation results, police were said to have stated, "It only quoted the contents of (the former president Yoon's) address, without running the reporter's thoughts or opinions, and it did not go beyond the scope of a typical news article format, so it is difficult to conclude that there was an intent to disrupt the constitutional order."
On the abuse of authority charge, it was reportedly determined that "in the absence of specific guidelines or rules on page layout or phrase drafting and editing for the Defense Daily, it should be viewed that the former chief Chae had the discretion to direct related tasks."
After a public-interest report was filed for abuse of authority and other issues, the former chief Chae was relieved of duties in August pursuant to the Ministry of National Defense's internal audit results. The former chief Chae, a former KBS reporter, served as a public relations special adviser in Yoon Suk-yeol's presidential campaign and was appointed head of the Defense Media Agency in May 2023 for a three-year term.