Former Korea Communications Commission (KCC) Chairperson Lee Jin-sook speaks to reporters after her release on the 4th. Hanmi Ilbo.

Former Korea Communications Commission (KCC) Chairperson Lee Jin-sook, who was released after being arrested by police, has criticized the police, reiterating that her arrest was unjust.

Former Chairperson Lee’s side also criticized the police's logic that "a swift investigation was necessary due to the imminent expiration of the statute of limitations," leading the police to issue a rebuttal.

In a Facebook post on the 5th, the day after her release, Lee stated, "To arrest me, three conditions must be met: substantiation of criminal charges, the risk of destroying evidence, and the risk of flight. Yet, the police, prosecution, and court issued and executed an arrest warrant against me without meeting even a single one of these conditions."

She emphasized, "Since the police had already captured the relevant posts, there was absolutely no risk of evidence destruction," adding, "How could I hide a face known to every citizen in the country? The suspicion that I might flee is contrary to common sense, even to imagine."

She went on to claim that the police arrest was "planned and systematic," stating, "During the review of the legality of the arrest, I was more shocked to learn that the police had applied for arrest warrants twice while I was still serving as KCC Chairperson. It is common sense to assume that if the police apply for an arrest warrant for a ministerial-level official, it would have been reported not only to the Ministry of Justice but also to the Presidential Office."

Lee added, "The citizens are the final bastion guarding the liberal democracy of the Republic of Korea. I will do my utmost to protect the liberal democracy of South Korea together with you."

A dispute between Lee’s side and the police also continued regarding the reasons for the arrest cited by the police.

Lee’s attorney, Im Moo-young, stated on Facebook that day, "The statute of limitations for this act (the alleged violation of the Public Official Election Act) is not 6 months, but 10 years; therefore, there is still at least 9 years and 6 months remaining," adding, "The urgency claimed by the police and the prosecution is not recognized at all."

Attorney Im argues that while the general statute of limitations under the Public Official Election Act is 6 months, Article 268, Paragraph 3 of the Act stipulates that the statute of limitations for the charges Lee faces is 10 years, not 6 months.

Previously, it was reported that the prosecution stated during the court's review of the legality of the arrest the day before that "the statute of limitations for Lee's violation of the Public Official Election Act expires on December 3rd, and her arrest was inevitable as she repeatedly refused summons."

Released former KCC Chairperson Lee Jin-sook exits the Yeongdeungpo Police Station in Seoul on the afternoon of the 4th. Yonhap News.

While ordering Lee's release, the court stated that as the statute of limitations for the charges of violating the Public Official Election Act is approaching, it was necessary for the investigative agency to swiftly summon and question the suspect.

However, Attorney Im attacked, stating, "It is questionable whether an investigative agency that applies for and requests arrest warrants without even verifying basic legal relationships can be trusted," and demanded that the chief of the Yeongdeungpo Police Station take responsibility, including by resigning.

In response, the police refuted the claims made by Lee’s side in an explanatory statement distributed to the media.

The police stated that the Public Official Election Act distinguishes between cases where a public official commits an illegal act in connection with their duties or by abusing their position (10-year statute of limitations) and cases where they do not use their duties or position (6-month statute of limitations).

The police are expected to review the direction of the case following a third investigation of Lee after the Chuseok holiday. However, it is unlikely that they will easily attempt to secure her person through arrest or detention again.

The following is the full text of the post uploaded by former KCC Chairperson Lee Jin-sook to her social media on October 5th.

Hello, this is Lee Jin-sook.

I would like to first thank all the citizens who have supported and cheered for me, as well as all those who, regardless of their support for me, have expressed the thought that it is unjust for me to be persecuted by injustice.

Returning home yesterday evening around 7:00 PM after ending 50 hours of detention and resting, I was able to feel the preciousness of freedom with my whole body. And in proportion to that preciousness, my anger toward the forces trying to deprive me of that freedom has grown even greater. If such violence can be easily exercised against me, a former ministerial-level official, I think that ordinary citizens must be even more vulnerable to harm. I ask myself: what kind of police will they become if the police gain prosecutorial powers alongside their investigative powers?

Over the past three days, I have explained through my legal counsel how planned and organized my arrest was, but I will now summarize that content once again.

I understand that an arrest warrant is requested and issued when criminal charges are substantiated and there is a risk of destroying evidence or fleeing. In my case, I meet none of these three conditions.

Even if we concede to the police's argument that there is room for debate regarding the substantiation of criminal charges, "room for debate" means that the suspect's claim of innocence holds some merit; it is not a term used to mean that the investigative agency has a need to investigate.

Furthermore, it is impossible to destroy evidence regarding the charges for which I was accused, such as violating the Election Act or the Public Official Act requiring political neutrality. The YouTube videos are still floating on the internet, and the police already have all those videos, so even if the YouTube operators were to delete them, the evidence remains. The same goes for my Facebook posts. The police have already captured those posts. Therefore, there is zero risk of evidence destruction.

Then, is there a risk of flight? If I had even the slightest intention to flee, I would have fled on October 1st, when I filed a constitutional complaint and an injunction with the Constitutional Court. But at my age, where could I run away to alone, and how? How could I hide a face known to every citizen in the country? The suspicion that I would flee is contrary to common sense, even to imagine.

To arrest me, all three conditions—substantiation of criminal charges, risk of evidence destruction, and risk of flight—must be met. However, without satisfying even a single one of these conditions, the police, prosecution, and court issued and executed the arrest warrant to arrest me. It was only my second day after being stripped of my status as KCC Chairperson and forcibly becoming a private citizen.

On the afternoon of October 2nd, while I was riding in a car with my husband to a nearby park, just as we left the parking lot and entered a six-lane road, two sturdy police officers blocked our path. I initially thought a violent crime had occurred, and I never dreamed that the "violent criminal" would be me, Lee Jin-sook. We were half-forced to turn the car back into the underground parking lot, where the arrest warrant was executed. The fact that the person who popped into my head when I was handcuffed for the first time in my life was Lee Jae-myung is tragic.

When the Lee Jae-myung government was inaugurated and the first cabinet meeting presided over by President Lee Jae-myung was held to deliberate and vote on the so-called "three special counsels," President Lee listened to the opinions of the attendees. At that time, I made remarks to the effect: "President, you said during the election campaign and upon being elected that you would be a president for all citizens, a president of integration, but the People Power Party is excluded from these three special counsels. If only the Democratic Party and the Rebuilding Korea Party recommend the special counsels, there is a risk of it being called political retaliation." However, the Three Special Counsel Act was passed, and we are now seeing the "activity" of those special counsels on television every day. I think perhaps the plan for me, Lee Jin-sook, may have started back then.

Perhaps I was foolish to harbor a faint, vain hope after June 3rd that the KCC could be normalized after the Lee Jae-myung government took office. I repeatedly demanded, requested, and pleaded for the appointment and recommendation of one standing commissioner for the president's share and three for the National Assembly's share for the KCC, which was left with only one person, but all were ignored.

Instead, the Democratic Party regime demanded my resignation as chairperson. Even before my appointment, they held a three-day hearing, unprecedented in history for a ministerial-level official, and rather than verifying my abilities, they made an issue of a corporate card used at a company 10 years ago, creating a frame called "Bread Jin-sook." I explained that the bread was bought to encourage employees, but facts were not important to them. They may have thought that if they shamed me through framing, I would step down, but since it was not true, I could not step down even more. Then they threatened to impeach me even before I was appointed, and that turned out to be true. Since impeachment must be based on acts committed while in office, threatening to impeach me before I had even begun my duties was an illegal threat.

And the Democratic Party impeached me on the grounds that I had appointed successors for the directors of the Foundation for Broadcast Culture (the major shareholder of MBC), whose terms were 12 days away from expiring, and for the directors of KBS, whose terms were a month away. With the impeachment motion passing in the National Assembly plenary session led by the Democratic Party on my third day in office, I was suspended from duty for 174 days. After staging an unprecedented impeachment show, Democratic Party lawmakers argued through the media that the impeachment was legitimate, but I did not have the opportunity to defend myself by informing the public of the injustice of the impeachment.

It was in the midst of this that I received an interview request from a YouTube outlet and got the opportunity to inform the public of the injustice of the impeachment. The remark that "the Democratic Party and the leftist group do everything we imagine, and they are a group that even does things we cannot imagine" meant that the attempt to impeach me falls within the scope of "everything we imagine," and impeaching me on only my third day in office falls within the scope of "things we cannot imagine."

The Democratic Party claims I made political remarks, but I do not think that every remark containing the words "Democratic Party" or "leftist group" is a political remark. As the party responsible for my impeachment, I merely pointed out the injustice of the impeachment led by them. I spoke only the facts, and there was absolutely no political intent behind those words. The Democratic Party's argument is that pointing out their faults is entirely a political remark against the Democratic Party, which means the Democratic Party is a sanctuary that should not be subject to any criticism.

The police and prosecution are claiming that the Facebook post I uploaded on March 25, 2025, was an act that influenced the election and are linking it with the Election Act, but the by-election held on April 2, 2025, was an election that was off the public's radar. It was a mini-election for five heads of local governments amid the impeachment situation for former President Yoon Suk Yeol, and the Constitutional Court had announced the ruling date for former President Yoon on April 1st, and the impeachment ruling was held on April 4th. In such a situation, who would have even been interested in such a mini-by-election? And why would I have written a post to influence that election?

In a post titled "An Open Letter to Representative Lee Jae-myung," I requested the recommendation of three standing commissioners for the KCC, which are the National Assembly's share. Democratic Party lawmakers label it a political remark unconditionally whenever I mention "Lee Jae-myung" or the "Democratic Party," but if you look at my remarks or writings, a message to restore the 5-member system of the KCC is consistently included.

In fact, interpreting the Act on the Establishment and Operation of the Korea Communications Commission, the 2-member system is legal, but the Democratic Party, which intentionally created the 2-member system, attacked it, claiming that all decisions of the KCC were "illegal," and due to that, a state of confusion followed with numerous trials. Therefore, as the majority party effectively holding the right to recommend, I have continuously demanded that the Democratic Party and Representative Lee Jae-myung restore the 5-member system.

Serving for 13 months as KCC Chairperson, for 6 months I was suspended due to impeachment, and for 3 months, with the resignation of the vice-chairperson, only I remained as a standing commissioner, so I was only able to work for 4 months in reality. If the Democratic Party's goal is to deprive me of the opportunity to work, I think the Democratic Party achieved that goal long ago. They encouraged me to resign when the regime changed, but I did not step down. If I had stepped down, they would have immediately begun the work of changing the management of public broadcasters, and it was obvious that an abnormal situation would be created where the management and board of public broadcasters, whose terms should be guaranteed, would be forced to step down.

Following the blatant pressure to resign, additional work continued. Multiple accusations and complaints followed, such as a police report regarding the use of the corporate card I had voluntarily disclosed, a request for an audit to the Board of Audit and Inspection on the grounds that I allegedly harmed political neutrality, a request for an investigation by the Public Official Ethics Committee, a report related to absence from the National Assembly, and reports related to YouTube and Facebook posts. These were overwhelming things for one individual to handle, but I could not succumb to injustice.

I faithfully underwent four rounds of questioning at the Daejeon Yuseong Police Station, and now that I have become a private citizen and have free time, I was about to respond to the Yeongdeungpo Police Station's questioning when I was suddenly arrested, leaving me feeling very embarrassed and miserable. And during the review of the legality of the arrest, I was more shocked to learn that the police had applied for arrest warrants twice while I was serving as KCC Chairperson.

It is common sense to assume that if the police apply for an arrest warrant for a ministerial-level official, it would have been reported not only to the Ministry of Justice but also to the Presidential Office. The President rejected my leave application, the Presidential Office spokesperson told reporters they would consider my dismissal by official authority, and the Senior Secretary for Political Affairs openly encouraged me to resign.

Shin Jung-hoon, the Democratic Party chairman of the Public Administration and Security Committee, encouraged the acting Commissioner General of the Korean National Police Agency to consider detaining me, and the acting Commissioner General replied that he would "instruct the National Office of Investigation to investigate swiftly." Since the Commissioner General of the Korean National Police Agency should not instruct the National Office of Investigation regarding specific cases, the conversation between Rep. Shin Jung-hoon and the acting Commissioner General is a clear violation of the law.

I cannot help but suspect that the arrest warrant for me was requested as part of this series of events. I have a strong suspicion that it is a joint work of the Presidential Office, the Democratic Party, the prosecution, and the police.

Moreover, around 10:00 AM on September 9th, I agreed over a phone call with the head of the Investigation Division 2 at the Yeongdeungpo Police Station to be questioned on September 27th. Yet, the police sent summons twice more, on September 9th and September 12th, requiring me to appear on September 12th and September 19th. If we agreed to investigate on September 27th, isn't it normal not to send additional summons if I wasn't going to appear on the 27th? These illegal summons are the reality behind the police claim that I refused summons six times.

While I was serving as KCC Chairperson, the only time I agreed on a date to appear while coordinating the schedule was once, on September 27th. But without my knowledge, I became a person who refused to appear six times. For me, the television caption saying "refused summons six times" was as shameful as being arrested in handcuffs. For me, who believes that although it's not a perfect life, I have lived a life I can be proud of, the caption "refused summons six times," which gave the impression that I intentionally avoided police questioning, caused serious damage to my honor.

I promised to appear and be questioned on September 27th, but the situation turned urgent around September 20th. The Democratic Party announced it would submit the KCC Abolition Act to the plenary session, setting the date for the 25th. Although the People Power Party and the Democratic Party reached an agreement on the Government Organization Act, the agreement eventually fell through, and the bill to abolish the KCC and the prosecution was submitted on the 25th. There were so many changes in the schedule that the plenary session date for the KCC Abolition Act was confirmed late on the 25th, and I requested my lawyer to submit a reason for non-appearance on the 26th.

The Yeongdeungpo Police Station claims that someone else can attend the filibuster on the 27th as a proxy, but this makes no sense. I attended the plenary session for all of the filibusters related to the revision of the three broadcasting laws and watched the debate for 24 hours. I watched not only the People Power Party lawmakers' debates but also the Democratic Party lawmakers' debates. Therefore, the claim that I used the National Assembly schedule to avoid the Yeongdeungpo Police Station questioning on the 27th is not true at all. I remained in my seat for 24 hours during all three filibusters related to my duties.

Moreover, the filibuster on September 27th was in the middle of proceedings for a law that would abolish the KCC and automatically dismiss me. Furthermore, it was the first day the National Assembly changed its internal regulations to require agency heads to attend plenary sessions. It seems to be the opinion of the Yeongdeungpo Police Station, the prosecutor who requested the warrant, and the judge who issued the arrest warrant that the Yeongdeungpo Police Station questioning is more important than the National Assembly schedule that abolishes the KCC, which had been maintained for 17 years.

While going through this incident, I feel infinite gratitude to the many patriotic citizens who resisted injustice with me. It was truly encouraging to hear the slogans "Cheer up, Lee Jin-sook" shouted in front of the police station while I was being questioned inside the investigation room, and I was deeply moved by the many citizens who participated when I went to the Nambu District Court for the legality review. Hearing from my lawyer that even those who do not support me feel a lot of anger at the actions of the government that engages in illegal acts against me, I was able to have hope for the future of our country.

The citizens are the final bastion guarding the liberal democracy of the Republic of Korea. I also thank the citizens who cheered for me, the patriotic citizens who supported me, and the People Power Party lawmakers and party council chairpersons who resisted injustice with me. I am also grateful to Attorney Im Moo-young, who provided an excellent defense.

I will do my utmost to protect the liberal democracy of South Korea together with you.

Thank you.

October 5th, Lee Jin-sook, the day after finding freedom again

Hanmi Ilbo · Yonhap News