The Democratic Party announced on the 22nd that it has filed a complaint with the police against Representative Park Soo-young of the People Power Party for allegedly violating the Public Official Election Act by spreading false information and engaging in illegal election activities. This comes after Rep. Park posted a composite photo on social media suggesting that Judge Ji Guy-yeon of the Seoul Central District Court received hospitality at a bar, which he later deleted.
On May 20, Rep. Park posted (and then deleted) a photo showing Judge Ji, who was presiding over a case against former President Yoon Seok-yeol, supposedly grilling pork belly at an entertainment venue. The Democratic Party’s election campaign committee claimed that the photo was generated by artificial intelligence (AI) and was not genuine. The original creator even revealed the process of creating the image using ChatGPT on an online community.
The committee also accused Park of falsely declaring that the “pork belly photo” was the original and that the Democratic Party had cropped the photo to publish it without the grilling scene. Additionally, he reportedly attacked Democratic candidate Lee Jae-myung by sarcastically referencing him as “the candidate who previously claimed the golf photo was manipulated.”
The committee insists that Park’s actions violate Article 250(2) of the Public Official Election Act, which prohibits the dissemination of false information detrimental to a candidate. They also argue that by using fabricated images for election purposes, Park infringed Article 82-8(1) of the same law, which bans utilizing such images in electioneering. They are calling for a prompt and thorough investigation by the authorities.