India, July 22 -- South Korean prosecutors have formally indicted Morse Tan, a former US diplomat who served under the first US President Trump administration, on criminal defamation charges. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office announced the non-custodial indictment against Tan, a Korean American law professor, following a controversial sequence of events that bridges international political rhetoric and domestic Korean jurisprudence.

The legal action stems from statements Tan delivered during a press conference in Washington, D.C., last year. According to investigators, Tan propagated demonstrably false allegations asserting that South Korean President Lee Jae Myung had been involved in a violent juvenile crime and detained i...