Funds Donated for the Funeral of a Former Comfort Woman given to Anti-THAAD Organizations

2020-5-16, Chosun Ilbo  [Translation]

It was confirmed on May 15, 2020 that [a comfort women organization] Jeong-ui-yeon (정의연) used some of the donation collected from citizens during the funeral of grandmother Kim Bok-dong (김복동), a victim of the Japanese military comfort women practice, who died in January last year, to fund the Anti-THAAD Countermeasures Committee (사드 반대 대책위원회), the committee to repatriate North Korean restaurant worker escapees (탈북 종업원 북송 추진 단체), and more. 

[Note:  Jeong-ui-yeon (정의연), literally means “justice remembrance solidarity”; on its website, it uses a very different and long name in English, The Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.  It also uses Korean Council for short, but has used other names in the past.  For years, it used the name Jeong-dae-hyup–literally, South Korea spirit great issue countermeasure council.]

Grandmother Kim, who has been actively testifying about comfort women issues outside of Korea, passed away on January 28, 2019.  Jeong-ui-yeon then organized the citizen’s funeral promotion committee (시민장례추진위원회).  Yoon Mi-hyang (윤미향), a Democratic Party of Korea (Deobureo Minjoo Party) proportional representative-elect, who was the chair of Jeong-ui-yeon at that time, collected money by posting on her Facebook the news of grandmother Kim’s death and a “bank account number” for donation.  It turned out that the bank account was Yoon’s personal account.

Yoon Mi-hyang told the media recently that the donation amount received by this account was ₩127,070,000 (~$113,000).  Additionally, Yoon received ₩94,760,000 (~$85,000) as condolence money from the visitors at Bin-so (funeral service site), ₩3,000,000 (~$2,700) of aid from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, and more from others, which totals to ₩227,260,000 (~$203,000).  About ₩97,036,400 (~$86,600) was used for funeral and memorial service, but she did not clarify what happened to the remaining ~₩130,000,000 (~$116,000).

A part of the money that has been used was found in a record published by the funeral committee (장례추진위) after the funeral.  It records that ₩22,000,000 (~$19,600) was donated to 11 organizations, ₩2,000,000 (~$1,800) each.  The record also states that (Jeong-ui-yeon’s funeral committee) “selected organizations that it has had a relationship with or ones that have been working with the grandmother, carrying out the grandmother’s usual wishes.” The record does not disclose any documents, such as a will, that could serve as evidence for “Grandma’s usual wishes.” 

However, there was a clear tendency in selecting the 11 groups – pro-North Korea, anti-American, and rebel (anti-state). A representative group on the list was the committee for truth finding about the defector employees (North Korean restaurant workers) and repatriation countermeasures (탈북 종업원 진상규명 및 송환대책위원회).  It was an organization established with the specific purpose of returning to North Korea the 13 defectors, who had escaped to South Korea in 2016 from a North Korean restaurant in China.  The group demanded repatriation of the 13 escapees, claiming that “the National Intelligence Service kidnapped them.”

In addition, the funeral committee selected the Minkahyup (literally activism council for democratization implementation and family, 민주화실천가족운동협의회) for “leading the release of “prisoners of conscience” (양심수) and the abolition of the National Security Law,” and the National Farmers’ Federation (전농) for promoting a campaign to send “tractors for unification” (통일 트랙터) to North Korea. 

Also selected under the “peace groups” were the People of Gangjeong (강정사람들), an organization opposing the construction of the Jeju Naval Base, and the Gimcheon countermeasures committee against THAAD deployment (사드배치반대김천대책위원회) and the Seognju citizens’ committee for THAAD withdrawal countermeasures, Soseong-ri branch (소성리사드철회성주주민대책위).   In addition, 2,000,000 won (~$1,800) each was donated to the citizen response committee for truth finding and punishing those responsible related to Kim Yong-gyun’s accidental death (김용균 사망사고 진상규명 및 책임자처벌 시민대책위원회) and the Samsung eneral labor union (삼성일반노조), among others.

Additionally, it has been confirmed recently that ₩20,000,000 (~$18,000) from the funeral condolences money was used as scholarship funds for children of activists, arbitrarily selected at their discretion; each received ₩2,000,000 (~$1,800).   It has not been revealed or confirmed what happened to the remaining ₩60,000,000 (~$53,600).

There was no record of any amount distributed to other surviving grandmothers.  Apart from grandmother Kim’s funeral, Jeong-ui-yeon spent ₩24,330,000 won (~$21,700) for 23 victims that year, which is 3% of the total donation amount of ₩825,500,000 (~$737,000) and only ₩1,060,000 won (~$946) per person.  At the press conference on May 7, 2020, grandmother Lee Yong-Soo said that “the donation should be used for the grandmothers because the money was collected under grandmothers’ names. Why are they spending that money anyway they want?” 

Experts view collecting the donation through Yoon Mi-Hyang’s personal bank account as a potential violation of the Donation Act (기부금품법).  The law requires registration with the Ministry of Public Administration and Security or a local authority prior to collecting donations that exceeds ₩10,000,000 (~$8,930) from a large, but unspecified number of people.  

The Jeong-ui-yeon expressed that “since the funeral was open to the public and Yoon Mi-Hyang was the representative of the funeral, announcing her bank account for the public to send the condolences money was not a problem.”  The Act on the Solicitation and Use of Donated Money and Goods (기부금품의 모집 및 사용에 관한 법률) does not state that condolence donations are considered differently from other types of donations.  Besides, Yoon Mi-Hyang named the account as a “sponsorship account,” instead of a “condolence donation” on her personal Facebook account.  An official from the Ministry of Public Affairs, who oversees violations of the Donation Act, pointed out that “in this situation, a proper registration process should have taken place.”  An accountant Kim Kyung-Ryul (김경률), a representative of Economic Democracy 21 (경제민주주의21), commented that “it is not common sense for a representative of a civic organization to use a personal account to receive donations.”

Prosecutors began investigating allegations against Yoon, including the use of donations. 

Source:  http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2020/05/16/2020051600070.html