Attorney Park Ju-hyun, legal counsel for Hanmi Ilbo, stated on her YouTube channel on the 3rd, presenting the police's search and seizure warrant, "This goes beyond suppression; it's a purge." [Photo=Park Ju-hyun's Facebook]

Attorney Park Ju-hyun is highlighting the illegitimacy of the search and seizure of Hanmi Ilbo through various media outlets.

Attorney Park, legal counsel for Hanmi Ilbo, stated on her YouTube channel "Park Ju-hyun Lawyer TV" on the 3rd, presenting the police's search and seizure warrant, "This goes beyond suppression; it's a purge."

In a phone interview with "Lee Bong-gyu TV" on the same day, she cited "silencing the issue of election fraud" as the primary reason for the search and seizure, adding, "The Democratic Party's accusation against Hanmi Ilbo for comprehensive defamation, rather than the election fraud issue, is a conscious response to the fact that U.S. President Donald Trump is investigating election fraud using the FBI."

The Democratic Party's complaint filed on October 16th of last year lists 5 counts of defamation against Lee Jae-myung and 1 count of defamation against Kim Hyun-ji. The suspects named are a total of 7 individuals: 2 executives and employees of Hanmi Ilbo, 2 editorial board members of Hanmi Ilbo, 2 U.S. citizens (including a journalist), and 1 columnist.

The sudden search and seizure of Hanmi Ilbo on February 3rd was a result of the Democratic Party's National Communication Committee filing a complaint with the police on October 16, 2025, regarding defamation allegations concerning Lee Jae-myung and Kim Hyun-ji. [Photo=The Democratic Party]

One of the articles that the Democratic Party took issue with was an interview conducted by reporter Heo Gyeom on August 4th of last year with Reverend James Daniel Shin (Shin Dong-young), a Korean-American who reported the "Lee Jae-myung's North Korea remittance case" to the United States and the United Nations.

Reverend Shin made the shocking claim at the time that "Lee Jae-myung could be arrested when he visits the United States for a bilateral summit." Reverend Shin is also named as a suspect in the Democratic Party's complaint.

Attorney Park Ju-hyun stated, "The investigators from the Public Crime Investigation Unit handling the case at the time asked me how it was possible to arrest a sitting president of another country, even in the United States. I replied that a bounty has been placed on Venezuelan President Maduro's head, making it entirely possible, and indeed, the world was shocked when the U.S. arrested Maduro," effectively confirming that Hanmi Ilbo's reporting was a prediction based on sufficient grounds.

She continued, "Therefore, I expected this case to be dismissed without charges, but unexpectedly, the jurisdiction was transferred to the Financial Crimes Investigation Unit, and a search and seizure was conducted." She added, "While the Public Crime Investigation Unit's workload may have increased due to allegations of election crimes by figures like Kang Seon-woo, I suspect the department was abruptly changed because the investigators in that unit learned too much about election fraud during the search and seizure of former Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, and consequently became aware of issues with the election commission."

Furthermore, she criticized, "It's like the police searching Fox News in the U.S. after Fox News reported that 'Biden was involved in election fraud.' The police are now paralyzing the operations of Hanmi Ilbo by pursuing two of its executives and employees and two editorial board members as suspects."

Regarding the police naming two additional U.S. citizens as suspects, Attorney Park stated, "As seen in the Coupang case, this could be a major diplomatic issue. We will certainly fight this in Korea, but we are also seeking ways to resolve it through international solidarity. We are considering filing a lawsuit in the United States."

On the same day, Attorney Park attended the '2024. 12. 3. That Day Premiere' held at Megabox in Songpa-gu, Seoul, and shared the news that "Hanmi Ilbo, which reported on Lee Jae-myung's election fraud and Kim Hyun-ji's allegations, was subjected to a search and seizure." She warned, "If we do not resolve the issue of election fraud this time, it will become a dictatorial society like Venezuela, where despite knowing about election fraud for 26 years, it cannot be overturned."

In a phone call with Hanmi Ilbo on the 4th, Attorney Park Ju-hyun commented on the issuance of the search and seizure warrant, stating, "The target is the election fraud issue, but to prosecute for election fraud would require implicating half of South Korea's population and proving it is difficult, so they used comprehensive defamation instead." She added, "Each individual case is not grounds for issuing a warrant. They bundled them together to make it seem like a crime was committed. This is a form of judicial deception. Furthermore, the Financial Crimes Investigation Team is not a specialized department for this area. The misaligned assignment of police departments and suspect interrogations can be seen as a directed investigation for suppression, revealing their intent to purge the media."

Reporter Im Yo-hee