Former KISA President Lee Sang-jung Files Suit to Overturn Dismissal, Citing Flaw in Board Voting Procedure

[Financial News] Lee Sang-jung, former president of the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), who was dismissed amid allegations including falsifying his career history and misusing a corporate credit card, has filed an administrative lawsuit seeking to overturn his dismissal. He argues that the process was flawed because KISA’s board used an online platform that could not verify participants’ identities when voting on the recommendation to dismiss him.
According to legal sources on the 12th, attorney Lee Seong-beom of Dongin Law Group said former president Lee, challenging his dismissal order dated the 28th of last month, filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the dismissal and an application to stay its enforcement at the Seoul Administrative Court the previous day.
Lee’s side plans to challenge the legality of the board’s resolution process, the lack of grounds for dismissal, and any overreach or abuse of discretionary authority in the dismissal.
Lee’s side says that, in the course of voting on the recommendation to dismiss him, KISA’s board did not verify the participants’ identities and conducted the vote using an unofficial private platform that anyone with the access link could join. They also claim Lee did not obtain personal benefits or provide undue favors while in office.
Attorney Lee explained, “We plan to challenge whether this voting method affected the legality of the resolution process, and to argue—by comparing audit findings from the Ministry of Science and ICT with previous internal disciplinary cases—that this dismissal violated the principles of proportionality and equality and exceeded and abused discretionary authority.”
He also stressed, “We applied for a stay of execution as well, having determined that it was urgently necessary to prevent irreparable harm that could arise if Lee’s term expired before a ruling on the merits and to protect the honor of his roughly 40 years of public service.”
Audits conducted since February by the Office of the Secretary for Civil Service Discipline at the Presidential Office and the Ministry of Science and ICT flagged issues with former president Lee’s career information, spending of business promotion funds, and budget management, among other matters.
KISA approved the recommendation to dismiss former president Lee on the 28th of last month and, to minimize disruption caused by his dismissal—his term had originally been set to run through January next year—appointed non-standing director Ryu Jae-cheol, a professor in the School of Computer Convergence at Chungnam National University, as acting president.

[email protected] Yoo Seon-jun Reporter