The Supreme Court confirmed the acquittal of former Presidential Chief of Staff Kim Ki-choon on charges of falsifying documents after briefing President Park Geun-hye on the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014.

The nine-member bench on Thursday confirmed the Seoul High Court's retrial verdict last November that acquitted Kim of related charges over five years after the indictment.

Kim was indicted in March 2018 on charges of submitting falsified records to the National Assembly about when the former president was first briefed on the April 16 ferry disaster, as well as the existence of real-time follow-up reports.

The first and appeals courts had convicted him of the charge, ordering a one-year prison sentence, suspended for two years.

The Supreme Court, however, struck down the guilty verdict in August of last year, ordering a retrial, saying that Kim’s testimony that he believed the former president understood the situation beyond the briefings was an opinion and cannot therefore be considered false.

Kim also awaits a retrial on charges of ordering the creation of a blacklist of figures in the arts and cultural industry deemed to be critical of the Park government in order to exclude them from state subsidies, after the top court reversed the lower court's four-year prison term.