What were Lee Jae-myung's 'lies'?

South Korea’s Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that Rep. Lee Jae-myung, the former chair of the liberal Democratic Party of Korea and front-runner for the presidency, made two knowingly false statements during the 2022 election campaign — which the court said must be judged by a higher standard given his candidacy.

The court concluded that Lee’s denial of personal ties with the late Kim Moon-ki, a key figure in the Seongnam land development scandal, amounted to the offense of “publicly announcing false facts” under Article 250 of the Public Official Election Act, which applies to candidates in elections for public office.

Lee had been indicted for his response while he was a presidential contender during a televised Channel A interview Dec. 29, 2021 to a question about whether, when he was mayor of Seongnam, he had personally known Kim, then head of Development Division 1 at Seongnam Development Corp., who committed suicide on Dec. 21, 2021.

“The People Power Party took a photo of four people and released it as if I was playing golf. But when I checked it, they took one part of the photo of our entire group with us and showed it like this. It was manipulated," Lee had answered at the time.

Though the Seoul High Court acquitted him on March 26, saying that Lee's comment was that the photo had been manipulated rather than a denial that he had played golf with Kim, the Supreme Court rejected the lower court's verdict.

“The statement can only be understood as the defendant denying that he played golf with Kim Moon-ki during the overseas business trip they took together, and is not being interpreted to have multiple meanings as the lower court determined,” said Chief Justice Jo Hee-de during Thursday’s televised ruling.

According to the chief justice, political candidates, particularly presidential ones, are held to a higher standard of truth in public statements, and their freedom of political expression is not equivalent to that of ordinary citizens.

Lee also faced scrutiny for a separate claim made during an Oct. 20, 2021 parliamentary hearing, in which he, then a presidential contender of the Democratic Party and the governor of Gyeonggi Province, said he felt pressured when the Land Ministry under then President Park Geun-hye "threatened to make an issue of the dereliction of duty," after requesting a zoning change to build a private residential development in Baekhyeon-dong three times, so "there was no other choice" but to approve the change while serving as Seongnam mayor.

The lower court had ruled this to be an exaggeration, but the Supreme Court disagreed, saying the statement was presented as "a public announcement of 'fact,' not a simple exaggeration or an abstract expression of opinion," according to Jo, so could have misled voters.

Legal observers say Thursday's Supreme Court ruling may not derail Lee’s campaign for president -- his third run to date -- in the short term, as the final rulings in his five ongoing criminal cases are unlikely before the June 3 vote. But the verdict could hurt his public image.

“The ruling won’t stop him from running, but it will raise questions in the minds of voters,” said a former judge who is now an attorney who requested anonymity. “Rebuilding public trust will be crucial for his campaign.”

The case has been sent back to the lower court for a final and unchallengeable verdict.