Byun ordered to compensate UPP leader
Byun Hee-jae
By Nam Hyun-woo
A district court Wednesday ordered a conservative online pundit, Byun Hee-jae, to compensate Lee Jung-hee, the chairwoman of the minor opposition Unified Progressive Party (UPP), for calling her a “pro-North Korean leftist.”
The Seoul Central District Court ruled that Byun had defamed Lee without grounds and ordered him to pay her 15 million won ($13,500) in damages.
Byun had, since last March, posted a total of 22 Twitter postings calling her a “pro-North Korean leftist” and said she joined a pro-Pyongyang group.
“The use of the term ‘pro-North Korean leftist’ for Lee constitutes defamation. When they use such a term, there should be sufficient grounds to justify the use of the term,” the court said in its ruling.
Lee and her husband filed a 550 million-won libel suit against the ultra-conservative pundit, the ruling Saenuri party spokesman Lee Sang-il and two conservative news outlets for defaming her by reporting Byun’s “tweets.”
The court ordered the Saenuri spokesman to pay 8 million won to the UPP head and for the news outlets ― Chosun Ilbo and the New Daily ― to pay her 4 million won and 10 million won, respectively.
After the ruling, the conservative pundit posted on his Twitter account, “A number of UPP members were punished for violating the NSL (National Security Law). But the ruling said its leader is not a pro-Pyongyang leftist. It does not make any sense.”