Lee Jae-myung calls for tough punishment for fake news, abusive comments

by Kim Bongcheol Posted : April 30, 2026, 14:07Updated : April 30, 2026, 14:07
President Lee Jae-myung drinks water as he listens to remarks at a luncheon with minor-party and independent lawmakers at Cheong Wa Dae on the 29th. (Yonhap)
President Lee Jae-myung drinks water as he listens to remarks at a luncheon with minor-party and independent lawmakers at Cheong Wa Dae on the 29th. [Photo=Yonhap]
President Lee Jae-myung said on the 30th that “fake news that shows a complete lack of humanity, and insulting comments, deserve severe punishment.”
 
Lee wrote the message on X (formerly Twitter) after linking a news report that police had arrested a man in his 50s accused of repeatedly posting online content that disparaged the Sewol ferry disaster, the Itaewon crowd crush and the victims’ families.
 
He warned that “police task forces will respond strictly in the future as well to fake news and comments that amount to secondary harm.”
 
The National Office of Investigation at the National Police Agency said it arrested the man for repeatedly posting, over a long period, about 70 online items that spread false information and defamed victims and bereaved families of the Sewol and Itaewon disasters.
 
The man is accused of continuously posting false claims and disparaging content about the Sewol and Itaewon disasters from 2021 to 2024 using platforms in and outside South Korea, police said.
 
Police said he circulated photos of bereaved families while repeatedly mocking them with claims such as, “Sewol bereaved families were recycled as Itaewon bereaved families.”
 
The case is the second arrest since the National Police Agency launched its unit to investigate crimes involving secondary harm in July last year.




* This article has been translated by AI.