Baseless claims S. Korean president committed heinous crimes resurface

"Wow, I knew about the sexual assault, but not the murder part. He's even crazier. Execute him immediately," reads part of the Korean-language caption of a clip shared on X on June 27, 2025.

The clip, which has been viewed more than 15,000 times, shows former US State Department ambassador-at-large for the Office of Global Criminal Justice Morse Tan, at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington (archived here and here).

"Lee Jae-myung, as a youth, was involved in gang-raping and murdering a young lady, and as a result was put in juvenile detention and therefore was not able to attend junior high and high school," Tan says.

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Screenshot of the false X post captured on July 7, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

Tan and far-right commentators alleged without basis during the event the country's June 3 presidential election had been rigged and China had likely intervened in the poll (archived link).

He also repeated a claim debunked by AFP about unfolded ballots being proof of fraud.

The claim and clip about Lee were also shared in similar Facebook, YouTube and X posts but South Korean courts have already dismissed the allegation.

Court rulings

Keyword searches on South Korea's Judiciary Information Access Portal led to dozens of court rulings in cases where individuals were prosecuted and fined for spreading the same false claim in violation of election laws ahead of the 2022 presidential poll (archived link). Lee lost the vote to his conservative rival Yoon Suk Yeol.

"Criminal and investigation history report as well as the candidate information disclosure document based on it show no record of juvenile detention sentencing", reads the verdict of one case tried at the Seoul Southern District Court.

The verdict, handed down in January 2023, also warned that disseminating the false claim without verifying its authenticity could distort the public's perception of a candidate and "undermine electoral fairness".

Moreover, there is no record of similar convictions in Lee's official disclosures as an election candidate. Candidates are legally required to disclose any criminal convictions that resulted in a fine of at least one million won (US$730).

Lee, who dropped out of school to work at a factory to support his family and sustained a disabling elbow injury in an industrial accident, has run for public office multiple times (archived link).

AFP has previously debunked several false claims targeting the president, who is a frequent target of misinformation in South Korea.