"Half the Women Were Objects of Sexual Pleasure for the Yangban" More Controversial Comments by Kim Seong-hoi

[경향신문]

On May 12, Kim Seong-hoi (pictured), the secretary for religious and multi-cultural affairs in the presidential office, who once stirred controversy with comments hostile to homosexuality and comments slandering comfort women victims, quoted Galileo Galilei on his Facebook account and wrote, “And yet it moves,” along with an argument that “Half the female population were objects of sexual pleasure for their masters, the yangban (aristocrats in Joseon) any time.”

This day, Kim wrote a post titled, “Monologue” and wrote, “In Joseon, 40-50%, nearly half the population were slaves (nobi), and among them female slaves were preferred because they could produce second generation slaves. It is generally accepted among historians that even when a female slave was married, if her yangban master requested her services in bed, she had to spend the night with him.” He argued, “Ultimately, half the female population were objects of sexual pleasure for their masters, the yangban, any time.”

He continued and wrote, “Why do the intellectuals and the press of the Republic of Korea, caught up in their own moral prejudices, ignore the inconvenient truth?” and added, “Galileo Galilei, who had to claim what was false as the truth for fear of his life, said, ‘And yet it moves.’ What I fear is not the fingers of the press and people caught up in social and moral biases pointing at me, but my own cowardice that tries to ignore the uncomfortable truth for my comfort.”

Previously in March 2021, Kim wrote a contribution in the online newspaper, The Third Way, and argued, “Half the women in Joseon were sex toys.” He also wrote, “Let’s study slavery in the Joseon Era and get half as angry at that as we do about the atrocities by the Japanese military. Before we, drunk with national pride, point our fingers at another country, why don’t we take a proper look at the shape of our history and get angry.”

In a post he wrote on Facebook three years ago, Kim described homosexuality as a type of psychosis and referred to the demand for compensation by the comfort women victims in the Japanese military as “overdue prostitution fees.” He was suspended from his activities on several occasions due to the controversial comments. When his words triggered a heated debate, he posted an apology on May 11, but came under further attack for stating in the apology that homosexual people could change their sexual orientation “just like people getting therapy to quit smoking.”