Reporter Joo Jin-wu and former lawmaker Chung Bong-ju on Monday sued former Grand National Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won for defamation and concealing irregularities during the Seoul mayoral by-election in October.

The suit is the first of the year, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. Joo and Chung shot to fame hosting the nation’s most popular podcast “Naneun Ggomsuda, (I am a slacker).”

Police said Joo, a reporter for the weekly magazine SisaIn, filed the complaint claiming that Na took groundless legal action against him and Chung to tarnish their reputations.

Joo claimed on the podcast that Na’s husband, judge Kim Jae-ho, had tried to peddle influence in ruling against an Internet user who aired the “dirty laundry” of his wife. Na had sued a netizen, whose identity remains a secret, in 2005 for posting articles on several online bulletins that she had attended an event hosted by a hard-right Japanese group. Joo claimed that Kim ordered prosecutors to indict him so that he could “take care of the rest in court.”

After the airing, Na sued Joo for making groundless allegations. However, she refused to testify about the “truth.”

Joo said that Na tarnished his honor, claiming his remarks were based on fact. He said Na tried to conceal the truth by suing him and that it was in violation of the election law as well as defamatory.

Chung also filed a complaint in a separate case. Earlier this year, he claimed in the same podcast that Na tried to ask him an inappropriate favor for her father’s school foundation in 2007.

She sued him for violating the election law.

Chung said that Na’s legal action was defamation since she had publicly admitted to visiting Chung to ask him questions and that her visit could be generally referred to as pressure to win favor.

Chung is currently in prison for spreading groundless allegations of stock fraud by President Lee Myung-bak. He claimed that his jail sentence was the administration’s retaliation against his revelations of government irregularities.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)