Supreme Court Rules Calling Someone "Human Garbage" During Argument Does Not Constitute Insult

▲ The Supreme Court of Korea

The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of acquitting a defendant who was put on trial for the crime of insult after calling someone "human garbage" during a dispute.

The Supreme Court's Second Division (Presiding Justice Park Young-jae) recently overturned a lower court ruling that found the defendant, surnamed A, guilty of insult and other charges, and sent the case back to the Daegu District Court.

Defendant A was indicted on charges of insult for telling another patient, surnamed B, "You're human garbage" in October 2023 while arguing over turning the lights on and off in front of other patients inside a hospital room.

A was also charged with defamation for installing a banner containing false information about a police officer affiliated with the Uiwang Police Station on a road near the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang between April and May 2021.

The first trial found all charges guilty and sentenced A to 10 months in prison suspended for two years.

The second trial maintained the guilty verdict but reduced the sentence to 8 months in prison suspended for two years.

However, the Supreme Court determined that the insult charge related to the "human garbage" remark could not be recognized.

The Supreme Court reaffirmed the legal doctrine that "if an expression is not a hateful swear word that risks severely violating an individual's right to personality or causes humiliation to the extent of destroying the other person's character, but is merely a rude, impolite, minor, abstract expression or swear word that may displease the other party, it does not fall under the elements of the crime of insult."

It further stated, "Unless expressions corresponding to temporary emotional outbursts are based on discrimination or hatred against gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, etc., it is necessary to exercise caution in intervening through the exercise of state penal power by applying the yardstick of the crime of insult."

The Supreme Court explained that A's remark was a one-off, impromptu, and impulsive utterance expressing their dissatisfaction or anger roughly, and it is difficult to view it objectively as an insulting act that would lower the social evaluation of the victim's personal value.

(Photo: Yonhap News)

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