Japanese Reporter Acquitted of Defaming S. Korea President Park

A Japanese journalist was convicted on Thursday of defaming South Korea’s President Park Geun-Hye with a report on her whereabouts following a fatal ferry disaster, in a case that has strained diplomatic relations. In July 2014, South Korean President Park Geun-hye and her Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, agreed to launch negotiations this year on the demarcation of their maritime boundaries amid tension over their overlapping EEZs.

During the Abe-Park meeting in November, he suggested that bilateral ties will be in an “irreversible state” if Kato were to be found guilty, a separate government official said.

“The court views the conduct of the defendant was in the realm of freedom of the press”, Judge Lee Dong-geun said at the conclusion of a three-hour hearing, speaking for a three-judge panel.

However, the court cleared him.

After the ruling, Kato said in a news conference that prosecutors should accept the court’s decision as it is.

There was no immediate comment from prosecutors as to whether they would appeal, but they are widely expected to do so.

The court acknowledged that Kato had negligently reported rumors about Park while knowing they were false. “Given that the 18th [of December] marks the 50th anniversary of the Japan-South Korea Treaty on Basic Relations taking effect, the request from the Japanese side deserves serious consideration”, the judge said, reading the letter from the foreign ministry before handing down the ruling.

Japanese leaders welcomed a South Korean court’s acquittal of the former Seoul bureau chief for the Sankei Shimbun, saying the verdict removes a barrier in efforts to resolve the more hard “comfort women” issue.

Kato had remained free during the months-long proceedings.

The trial had further irritated already inflamed ties between the South and its former colonial power Japan, which have for decades bickered over history and territorial disputes.

Japan and South Korea have been attempting to improve ties despite recent developments, including the arrest of a South Korean in connection to a small explosion at Yasukuni Shrine and a retaliatory delivery of excrement to a South Korean consulate in Yokohama.

Seoul also voiced hope for an improvement in relations. That Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with Kato after his return to Japan signaled that Tokyo cared deeply about the case.