Former U.S. Ambassador Says Seoul Prosecuted Him Over U.S. Speech

Former U.S. diplomat Morse Tan appeared before a South Korean court Friday on defamation charges involving President Lee Jae Myung. The case stems from remarks Tan made in the United States and has prevented him from leaving South Korea.

The legal dispute began after Tan spoke at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., in June 2025. Answering a question, he referenced allegations that Lee had been involved in a crime during his adolescence.

Tan traveled to South Korea in May but has since been barred from departing because of the case. Prosecutors charged him under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, etc., as well as the Criminal Act.

Tan made the comments about Lee’s alleged juvenile crimes during a National Press Club event titled “Report on Election Fraud in the June 3 South Korean Presidential election.” Responding to a question about the president and other matters, Tan cited allegations from several years earlier that Lee had been involved in a gang rape and murder as a teenager. Tan also said Lee, now 62, had been sent to a juvenile detention center and had not completed middle or high school.

South Korean prosecutors have rejected the criminal allegations against Lee as unsubstantiated, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily. The newspaper reported that prosecutors said Lee had not “been prevented from attending middle or high school due to such a criminal record.”

The South Korean outlet KBS World likewise reported that “the prosecution previously verified that there was no record of Lee’s being incarcerated at a juvenile detention center and concluded that the rumors about his incarceration were false.”

Asia Business Daily reported that Tan’s attorney argued, “Even if jurisdiction is recognized, the statements did not present false information, and Tan was not aware that they were false.” The lawyer added, “He had no intention to defame.”

Speaking to News Media on Friday, Tan said he “pleaded not guilty because I believe that Lee Jae Myung is guilty” during his hearing at Seoul Central District Court.

Tan, a constitutional law professor and former dean of Liberty University’s law school, told News Media that his “protected speech is about as protected as it gets.” He criticized the prosecution for using “criminal defamation, a dubious category which does not exist in the U.S.,” against him.

A spokesperson for the South Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C., said the case was “being handled in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations, established principles and due process in the Republic of Korea.” The spokesperson added that the restriction on Tan’s departure “is also imposed and reviewed accordingly.”

Tan said he was disappointed that Michelle Steel, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea and a former Republican congresswoman from California, had not publicly addressed his case. Steel and Tan are both Korean-Americans.

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A U.S. State Department spokesperson declined to discuss the specific details of the case.

“The Trump Administration has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans,” the spokesperson told News Media. “Due to privacy and other considerations, we have nothing further to share at this time.”

Tan maintains that the case violates his due process rights and that South Korean courts lack jurisdiction over the matter. He said the second charge relates to a July 2025 speech he delivered in South Korea, during which he “raised some issues as questions” concerning the president. “This is political lawfare. This is a persecution, not a prosecution,” Tan said.

Tan believes the effort to criminalize his speech is driven by the South Korean government’s perception of him as a “threat.” He has been an outspoken critic of what he describes as Lee’s appeasement policy toward North Korea’s communist regime.

“People consider me to be leading a movement against the communizing of South Korea,” Tan said.

He accused the current South Korean government of aligning itself with North Korean and Chinese communist regimes “against the U.S. and the Korean people.”

Tan points to bias against him by South Korean authorities, who he says prohibited him from attending the funeral of his grandmother, while it allows South Korean prisoners to attend funerals for family members.

KBS World reported that the “Police, who had initially decided not to hand over Tan’s case to the prosecution, launched a reinvestigation at the prosecution’s request.”

National Review Online also reported that the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Cyber dismissed a complaint about Tan’s alleged defamatory statements in April 2026, declaring “no right to prosecute.”

According to South Korean law, Tan could face a prison term if found guilty.