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Hurt Feelings Are Not Enough: Supreme Court Again Narrows the Scope of Criminal Insult

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In its second significant ruling on criminal insult in as many months, the Supreme Court has reversed a conviction for profanity exchanged during a noise dispute, reaffirming that offensive language only becomes criminal insult where it objectively lowers the target’s social standing — not merely where it causes hurt feelings. Here are the key points.

Issue

Does profanity shouted at a neighbor during a heated dispute over noise — in the presence of a building management employee — constitute criminal insult under Article 311 of the Criminal Act?

Facts

  • A and B were neighbors in an apartment complex in Daegu’s Jung District who had been in conflict over inter-floor noise for approximately two months.
  • In October 2022, A called the police to report noise from upstairs. Responding officers found nothing unusual and advised A to resolve the matter through the building management office.
  • A then went to B’s unit accompanied by a management office employee. In the corridor, with the employee present, A and B became increasingly agitated during a confrontation, both raising their voices and exchanging profanity. In the course of this, A directed a string of profanity at B.
  • A was charged with publicly insulting B under Article 311 of the Criminal Act.

Lower Court Decisions

  • Both the trial and appellate courts convicted A and imposed a fine of ₩1 million, finding that the profanity directed at B in front of the management employee satisfied the elements of criminal insult.

Supreme Court Decision

  • The Supreme Court (Criminal Division 1, presiding Justice Shin Suk-hee) reversed on May 29, 2026, and remanded to Daegu District Court.
  • The court held that the lower courts had misapplied the legal definition of “insult” under Article 311, setting out the following principles.
  • Criminal insult protects a person’s external honor — their objective social standing in the eyes of others — not their subjective emotional state. Whether an expression constitutes insult must be assessed strictly and objectively, taking into account the relationship between the parties, the circumstances and manner of the expression, and the overall situation at the time. The relevant question is not whether the target felt offended, but whether the expression was objectively capable of lowering their social standing.
  • Language that is merely rude or impolite, or that expresses negative feelings toward another person while involving minor profanity, does not generally meet this standard absent special circumstances.
  • On the facts, A and B had been in a two-month conflict over noise. Both became heated during a mutual confrontation in front of the management employee, both raised their voices, and both used profanity toward each other. A’s remarks emerged from that mutual escalation.
  • Viewing the relationship between the parties, the specific circumstances that led to the remarks, and the overall situation, the court found A’s words were simply profanity expressed in an agitated state to convey negative feelings — the kind of expression capable of hurting the recipient’s subjective feelings, but not objectively capable of lowering B’s social standing in the eyes of others. The criminal insult threshold was not met.

Key Takeaways

  • Criminal insult under Korean law requires objective harm to a person’s external social reputation — not merely subjective offense or hurt feelings.
  • Profanity exchanged during a mutual heated dispute, where both parties are agitated and the language reflects the immediate emotional tension rather than a considered attack on the other’s character, generally falls below the criminal insult threshold.
  • The presence of a bystander satisfies the publicity element, but does not by itself elevate impulsive profanity into actionable insult. Both elements — publicity and objective reputational harm — must be independently satisfied.
  • Context is decisive: the history of the dispute, the mutual nature of the confrontation, and the emotional state of the speaker are all relevant to whether the expression crossed the line from rude to criminally insulting.
  • This ruling follows closely on the Supreme Court’s May 2026 decision in the apartment residents’ council case, where similar reasoning was applied to the remark “you cheeky little punk.” The two decisions together signal a consistent judicial direction toward narrowing criminal insult liability for spontaneous interpersonal conflict.

Why This Matters

Korea has seen a surge in criminal insult complaints in recent years, many arising from everyday disputes between neighbors, customers, and strangers. These two Supreme Court rulings in quick succession send a clear message to lower courts: the criminal insult statute is not a tool for policing rudeness in interpersonal conflict. Hurt feelings, however real, do not by themselves constitute a crime. For practitioners defending insult charges and for prosecutors deciding whether to charge them, the standard that now clearly applies is one of objective reputational harm — a standard these decisions confirm is meaningfully higher than subjective offense.

Article: https://www.lawtimes.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=223899&page=2&total=25245

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