The Supreme Court concluded that the memoir published during the lifetime of the late former President Chun Doo-hwan distorted the May 18 pro-democracy uprising and defamed those involved. Accordingly, his wife, Lee Soon-ja, and son, Chun Jae-guk, must compensate May 18-related organizations.
On the 12th, the Supreme Court's Third Division (Presiding Justice Lee Heung-gu) finalized a lower-court ruling partly in favor of the plaintiffs in a damages suit filed by four groups including the May 18 Memorial Foundation and Father Cho Young-dae, nephew of the late Father Cho Bi-o, against the former president and his son, Chun Jae-guk.
Under the ruling, Lee Soon-ja and Chun Jae-guk must each pay 15 million won to the four May 18 groups and 10 million won to Father Cho, for a total of 70 million won. In addition, to publish or distribute the memoir, they must delete certain passages deemed distortions.
In the memoir published in April 2017, the former president called May 18 a "riot" and said there was no "helicopter shooting." Regarding Father Cho Bi-o, who testified that he witnessed helicopter gunfire, he called him "a shameless liar unworthy of being called a clergyman." He also advanced the "North Korean involvement theory."
In response, the May 18 groups and Father Cho's bereaved family sought an injunction to ban publication and distribution of the memoir against the former president and his son, Jae-guk, who published and sold the book, and filed civil and criminal suits simultaneously. The court granted the injunction, ruling the book could not be published or distributed unless the passages challenged by the May 18 groups were deleted. The second edition of the memoir was later released with the relevant parts blacked out.
In the first-instance civil damages suit in September 2018, the court partly ruled for the plaintiffs, ordering the former president and his son to pay 15 million won each to the four May 18 groups and 10 million won to Father Cho. It also banned publication and distribution unless 69 of the 70 problematic passages were deleted.
In September 2022, the appellate court ordered payment of the same amounts. The former president died in November 2021, before the appellate ruling, and his wife, Lee Soon-ja, succeeded the suit. The appellate court ordered that 51 of the 63 passages reviewed be deleted in whole or in part.
The Supreme Court said, "Considering the course of the May 18 pro-democracy uprising, the contents of final judgments, statements by those involved, and the findings of past fact-finding commissions, it must be deemed proven that all facts specified in each passage are false."
The Supreme Court also found that by asserting false facts about martial law troops' helicopter shooting and disparaging Father Cho Bi-o with insulting expressions, the former president infringed on the commemorative feelings of his nephew, Father Cho Young-dae, allowing Father Cho to claim damages.
In the criminal case, the former president was sentenced at first instance to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, on charges of defaming the deceased. The appeal ended with a dismissal of prosecution due to the former president's death.