Cho Kuk says Lee Jae-myung’s election-law case should end through legal reform, not dismissal

Cho Kuk has argued that President Lee Jae-myung’s election-law case should not end with prosecutors withdrawing the indictment. Instead, he said, lawmakers should amend the law so the case can be closed without a final judgment on the underlying charge.

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President Lee Jae-myung’s violation of the Public Official Election Act case should proceed through a judgment closing the case without a final determination through an amendment to the law, not through withdrawal of the indictment.

In a Facebook post on Sept. 6, Cho said many lawmakers and media outlets were overlooking the fact that a bill deleting the word “act” from the election law offense of publishing false information had already passed the Legislation and Judiciary Committee on May 14, 2025, and been referred to the full National Assembly.

Cho said that if the bill passed, it could affect both the ongoing case involving Yoon Suk Yeol and the case involving Lee that would proceed after the president’s term ends. In his formulation, the legal route to closing both cases would open in sequence, first for Yoon and then for Lee. He explained that the relevant legal outcome, 면소, ends a case without a final conclusion because a legal provision has been abolished or otherwise changed.

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The amendment to take the excessive criminalization and judicialization of politics to an end is not a matter of progressives or conservatives, or left and right.

He warned that some self-described pro-Lee commentators and YouTubers might distort his position as support for Yoon and the People Power Party. Cho said restoring the false-information offense to its pre-2000 form was not a left-right issue, but a measure against the excessive criminalization and judicialization of politics.

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I respectfully ask the Democratic Party and the People Power Party: let us put the election-law amendment, which has been asleep in a cabinet for about a year and a half, to a vote in the full assembly.

Cho urged the Democratic Party and the People Power Party to put the bill, which he said had remained dormant for about a year and a half, to a vote. He also distinguished institutional responsibilities: the Justice Ministry and Supreme Prosecutors’ Office should discipline prosecutors accused of fabricating cases, the Corruption Investigation Office should investigate them, and the National Assembly should amend problematic laws. Cho had previously opposed the Democratic Party’s proposed special counsel bill on alleged fabricated prosecutions, warning that pushing to withdraw Lee’s indictment could create political and legal difficulties.

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Each should do its own job. In particular, the National Assembly, as the legislative body, should end the excessive criminalization and judicialization of politics.