Supreme Court's full bench to begin first hearing Sept. 29 on Kim Keon Hee, Han Duck-soo and Lee Sang-min appeals

The Supreme Court's full bench will begin substantive hearings Monday on the appeals of Kim Keon Hee in her major criminal cases, as well as those of former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and former Minister of Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, both indicted in connection with the Dec. 3 emergency martial law incident.

According to legal sources Tuesday, the Supreme Court has scheduled a full-bench session for Monday and decided to hear together Kim's cases — involving alleged violations of the Capital Markets Act and the Political Funds Act — alongside Han's and Lee's cases on charges of performing an important role in an insurrection.

In Kim's case, the court will focus on whether the free provision of polling services by political broker Myung Tae-kyun constitutes a prohibited "political fund contribution" under the Political Funds Act.

Kim was acquitted at both the first and second trials on charges that she received 58 rounds of polling worth 270 million won ($195,000) free of charge from Myung between June 2021 and March 2022. Both courts found that Myung had unilaterally provided the services to promote his own firm, Mirae Korea Research Institute, and expand his political influence. That stood in direct contrast to the first-instance verdict in former President Yoon Suk Yeol's separate trial, in which the court found him guilty in July on 14 of the same polling instances — on the premise of joint criminal liability — and sentenced him to two years in prison, creating a split between the lower-court rulings against husband and wife.

The Supreme Court had originally planned to issue a small-bench ruling in Kim's case on July 16, but accepted a postponement request from Special Prosecutor Min Joong-ki's team immediately after Yoon's guilty verdict, then referred the case to the full bench — opening the first hearing roughly two months later. Kim was sentenced at the second trial to four years in prison and a fine of 50 million won after being found guilty on some counts of involvement in Deutsch Motors share-price manipulation and of accepting money from the Unification Church.

The full bench will also consolidate the cases of Han and Lee, who are charged with playing key roles in the Dec. 3 emergency martial law incident, and issue a final ruling on the legal interpretation and scope of the crime of performing an important role in an insurrection.

Han is accused of recommending the convening of a Cabinet meeting to lend procedural legitimacy to the martial law declaration and of seeking to obtain Cabinet members' signatures after the fact. His sentence was reduced from 23 years in prison at the first trial to 15 years on appeal. Lee, who faces charges of relaying orders to blockade the National Assembly and cut power and water to major media outlets, saw his sentence increased from seven years at the first trial to nine years on appeal.