Journalist tells all about his legal battle against first lady

In a new book, Joongang Ilbo columnist claims Cheong Wa Dae uses lawsuits to tame critics

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Jungang Ilbo columnist Nam Jeong-ho

It all began with a column published on June 11, 2019, in local newspaper the Joongang Ilbo, which pitted veteran journalist Nam Jeong-ho against the presidential office in a legal battle that lasted for two years.

In his column titled "First Lady Kim Jung-sook's Bucket List?" he cautiously but unequivocally alleges that the first lady had made the most of the official overseas trips taken with her husband, President Moon Jae-in, as opportunities to explore some of the world's renowned cultural heritage sites and museums on taxpayers' money.

Nam said he was overwhelmed by what happened to him afterwards. He first received a letter from the presidential office urging him and his company to print corrections according to unusually lengthy and detailed guidelines. He ignored a letter from LKB & Partners, one of the nation's top law firms which was representing the first lady. Weeks later they sued him, after the two sides failed to reach an agreement arranged by the Press Arbitration Committee.

Nam compares his legal battle against Cheong Wa Dae to a showdown akin to David and Goliath.

"I felt pressure (when I looked at the sender of the thick package of documents because I knew who they were)," Nam said in a phone interview with The Korea Times on Monday. "There were lots of naysayers around me and they encouraged me to do what Cheong Wa Dae asked me to do. They said Cheong Wa Dae would mobilize all the resources it could to win the battle."

But Nam didn't back down. He chose to go ahead with the legal fight, because he was confident about the integrity of his column. What he wrote was based on facts, he said.

With the support of his lawyer, he gathered open source information that could defy Cheong Wa Dae's claims. His hard work paid off.

The district court sided with him, ruling against Cheong Wa Dae. Cheong Wa Dae then appealed to the higher court. The judge advised Nam and his counterpart to seek reconciliation, rather than going to another trial, an offer both sides accepted. The case was closed in May 2021, with their agreement that the Joongang Ilbo would run a correction on its website to notify its readers that the itineraries of President Moon's overseas trips are set through mutual communication between the Korean and host country governments.

Nam claimed that he was a victim of what he called a "strategic lawsuit against public participation" (SLAPP), a suit filed to silence critics, according to the website of the Public Participation Project (PPP). "(T)he damaging suits chill free speech and healthy debate by targeting those who communicate with their government or speak out on issues of public interest," the PPP said on its website.

Nam alleged that Cheong Wa Dae had tried to silence him as a member of the media critical of the Moon administration by filing a suit against him and forcing him to pay, arguing that press freedom has been in retreat.

"With previous administrations, journalists would face complaints from Cheong Wa Dae if their articles about the president or other figures in the presidential office were not based on facts. None of the governments or administrations had ever lied when they were in disputes with journalists," Nam claimed. "But the Moon government was different."

Reporters Without Borders' world media freedom rankings say differently. In the 2019 survey, for example, South Korea ranked 41st on the World Press Freedom Index. In contrast, the /

Nam's new book "Truth Behind First Lady Kim Jung-sook's Bucket List"

nation stood at 70th in the survey in 2016, before Moon was sworn in as president.

Nam published a book recently that wrapped up his two-year-long legal battle against Cheong Wa Dae. The book, titled, "Truth Behind First Lady Kim Jung-sook's Bucket List," was published by Jinmyung Books just as rumors began circulating about the first lady's wardrobe.

When asked if the timing of the book accidentally coincided with the emergence of the wardrobe scandal, Nam said that he began to write the book earlier this year, provoked by a presidential secretary's social media post.

In a social media post on Feb. 3 of this year, Tak Hyun-min, a protocol secretary for President Moon, criticized the main opposition party and some "underperforming reporters" for their alleged sheer lack of understanding of summit diplomacy. "Whenever the president returns home after overseas trips for summit diplomacy, they would paint the presidential trips as tourism or actions to fulfill a bucket list or something. I am sick and tired of such baseless criticism," he wrote.

Tak's social media post came amid criticism from the main opposition People Power Party over first lady Kim's reported visit to the pyramids during President Moon's visit to Egypt earlier this year.

"It was apparent that I was one of the 'underperforming reporters' he was referring to, as I was the one who wrote about the first lady's bucket list two years ago ― so I began to write the book to tell the truth," Nam said.