A civic group filed a lawsuit to disclose the meal expenses and movie ticket costs that former President Yoon Suk-yeol spent early in his term but ultimately lost. The reason was that the Yoon Suk-yeol administration has already ended and the related records were transferred to the Presidential Archives, so the presidential secretariat does not have the materials.
The Supreme Court's Third Division (presiding Justice Noh Kyung-pil) said on July 7 that on June 24 it overturned the portion unfavorable to the defendant and sent the case back to the Seoul High Court in the appeal of the lawsuit filed by the Korea Taxpayers Federation seeking to cancel the refusal to disclose information against the presidential chief of staff.
On June 11, 2022, early in the term, former President Yoon watched the film "Broker" with his wife, Kim Keon-hee, at a theater in Seoul. It was also reported that on May 13 that year, he had dinner at a high-end Korean restaurant in Gangnam, Seoul, and made an expenditure of 4.5 million won.
The Taxpayers Federation requested disclosure of these expenditure details, but the presidential office refused, citing reasons such as "state secrets" and "concerns about invasion of privacy." The Taxpayers Federation filed an administrative appeal with the Presidential Secretariat Administrative Appeals Committee, but when it was dismissed, it filed this lawsuit in March 2023.
In the first trial on Sept. 1, 2023, the court accepted the Taxpayers Federation's claim that the details of the dinner expenses and the costs expended for the movie viewing must be disclosed. It also recognized that some of the presidential office's special operation expenses disbursed after the launch of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration were subject to disclosure. However, regarding the presidential office's business promotion expenses spent after Yoon took office, it dismissed the claim, saying the breakdown had already been posted on the website.
The presidential secretariat appealed, but on Apr. 30, 2024, the appeals court dismissed the case, saying, "The first-instance judgment is justified."
The Supreme Court's ruling came after a little over two years. The court said, "The 20th president (former President Yoon) was impeached and the office became vacant on Apr. 4, 2025, and the 21st president's term began on June 4, 2025. Around that time, the presidential records were fully transferred to the Presidential Archives," adding, "There is ample room to view that the information the plaintiff seeks to have disclosed was also transferred to the Presidential Archives during the same period and is not held by the defendant (the presidential secretariat)."
The Supreme Court said, "It is necessary to newly examine whether the plaintiff's legal interest in seeking cancellation of the refusal to disclose information against the defendant has been extinguished," and remanded the case.
In 2018, the Taxpayers Federation also sought disclosure from the Blue House of the details of special operation expenses expenditure after then-President Moon Jae-in took office. It also requested disclosure of information on the budgeting and expenditure performance related to former First Lady Kim Jung-sook's clothing, accessories, and shoes transfer expense, as well as the price of lunch boxes provided and the name of the lunch box vendor at the workshop for minister- and Vice Minister-level officials held at the Blue House in Jan. 2018.
The Blue House refused the information disclosure request at the time, and a lawsuit followed. In 2022, the first-instance court ordered the disclosure of the special operation expenses details. However, after the change of administration, on Feb. 2024, the appeals court dismissed the plaintiff's claim, saying, "The information the plaintiff requested to be disclosed has been transferred to the Presidential Archives and is not currently held or managed by the defendant."