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| Lawmaker of the ruling Democratic Party Yoon Mee-hyang, who led an advocacy group for victims of the Japanese military's sexual slavery during World War II, speaks during a news conference at the National Assembly in Seoul, Friday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
By Bahk Eun-ji
Yoon Mee-hyang, an activist-turned-lawmaker, denied allegations of misappropriating funds during her years as head of a civic group purportedly advocating for Korean victims of Japan's wartime sex slavery, during a press conference, Friday.
Yoon's reaction came a week after prosecutors conducted search-and-seizure operations at facilities operated by the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (Korean Council) last week, securing accounting documents amid snowballing allegations of the misuse of funds donated by the public to support the elderly victims.
"Apart from deeply bearing Lee's criticism and opinion, it certainly is not true that the Korean Council has never delivered money raised from the public to the victims," Yoon said during the press conference at the National Assembly.
Lee Yong-soo, 92, one of the victims forced by the Japanese military to serve soldiers in brothels before and during World War II, voiced criticism of Yoon during a second news conference at a hotel in Daegu, Monday. After Lee's press conference, Yoon kept a low profile, shunning public activities including a party workshop held Wednesday ahead of 21st National Assembly's inaugural session Saturday.
The advocacy group has conducted three big fund-raising campaigns over the elderly victims for the last 30 years, including one they had when the Park Geun-hye administration signed a controversial deal with the Japanese government in 2015. Under the deal, the Japanese government provided 1 billion yen ($9.3 million) through the "Reconciliation and Healing Foundation," to settle the issue. As the Korean Council, and some of the victims protested the deal, it raised money from the public and provided 100 million won to those who refused to receive money from the Japanese government.
Yoon said the council has already made the receipts public, and denied suspicions that the council prevented the victims from receiving the money from Japan, or that it had been aware of the deal in advance.
In regard to one of the most serious allegations over the purchase and running of a shelter for former sex slaves in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, she claimed all the procedures of purchasing and selling the facility were carried out legally and transparently.
When the group purchased the house in Anseong in 2013, the owner wanted to sell it for 900 million won as it was newly built, but eventually settled for 770 million won. However, the council then sold the shelter in 2016 for 420 million won.
"Because of the changes in the price of the surrounding real estate, it was sold for 420 million won, which was way lower than what we bought it for. We couldn't put off the contract any longer after five years, and as a result, we had no choice but to waste the money raised by public," Yoon said.
Yoon officially becomes a member of the 21st National Assembly from Saturday. She said she had no intention to give up her parliamentary seat nor avoid the investigation by the prosecution as she has nothing to hide.
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