Lawmaker Youn Mee-hyang denies contact with pro-North group

Youn said the pro-Pyongyang Chongryon was just one of 100 or so organizations involved in the event marking the 100th anniversary of the massacre of ethnic Koreans during the Great kanto earthquake.

Independent Rep. Youn Mee-hyang attends the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on Tuesday. The government is looking into allegations that Youn made contact with pro-North group officials without government approval. [YONHAP]

Controversial independent Rep. Youn Mee-hyang denied that the event she attended in Japan last week commemorating the massacre of ethnic Koreans during the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake was organized by a pro-North Korea group.

She claimed the Japanese expressed their gratitude for her attendance at the memorial event.

“I went there as a legislator of Korea,” Youn said while appearing on a liberal YouTube channel, Kim Eo-jun’s News Factory on Tuesday. “I was the first [lawmaker] who made a memorial speech for the [deceased] Koreans that lived overseas.”

“The Japanese society thanked me,” Youn said.

Youn said the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, also known as Chongryon, was just one of 100 or so organizations involved in the event marking the 100th anniversary of the massacre of ethnic Koreans during the Great Kanto earthquake.

“It has been overblown as if Chongryon had organized the ceremony on its own,” Youn said. “I attended the ceremony after the organizing committee proposed that a South Korean legislator participate.”

“There were no reasons for me to contact Chongryon,” Youn said.

She emphasized that all she did was merely place a flower during the memorial event.

The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, founded in 1955, has long ties with the United Front Department of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party and has served as Pyongyang's de facto embassy in Tokyo as the two countries do not have formal diplomatic ties.

Chongryon especially has been ruled by the South Korean Supreme Court as an anti-state organization under the National Security Act in 1970 and has been suspected of nefarious activities on behalf of North Korea, including kidnapping and even assassinating then first lady Yuk Young-soo.

Heads of the organization had been buried as patriots in North Korea.

Yoon had been embroiled in controversy after she posted on her Facebook about attending the commemorative ceremony organized by Chongryon instead of attending a similar ceremony organized by the pro-Seoul Korean Resident Association in Japan commemorating the ethnic Koreans that were killed by Japanese in the aftermath of the earthquake on Sept. 1, 1923.

Huh Jong-man, the head of Chongryon, who was awarded a medal of merits from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and other leadership figures of the pro-North group were present at the ceremony that Youn attended.

Youn on Tuesday claimed that what she understood was that the organizers proposed both the pro-North and pro-South groups to attend the memorial service, but the pro-South group refused.

“I was not invited by Chongryon,” Youn said.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Youn claimed that in Japan, they see the attacks against her by the Korean media and the People Power Party as “comedy.”

“Chongryon participates in most of the events [in Japan],” Youn said. “Chongryon is present in every civic society [event] in Japan.”

Independent Rep. Yoon Mee-hyang attends an event to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake at Yokoamicho Park in Tokyo on Friday. [FACEBOOK]

On YouTube, she claimed that she was unaware of the pro-South group holding its own event and placed blame on the Korean embassy in Tokyo for not providing her with information regarding such an event.

"I had already informed the Korean embassy in Japan about my travel plans," Youn said. "However, they failed to inform me about such schedules."

However, on her Facebook post on Saturday, Youn mentioned that she had heard about the pro-South organization holding its own event.

“I wasn’t invited,” Youn said. “And I completely understand.”

As she did on Monday, Youn again denied accusations of using taxpayers' money on her trip to Japan in attending a pro-North event.

She said the only assistance she received from the embassy was aid with the entry process and a short ride to her hotel.

“It was a 20-minute ride,” Youn said.

“The trip to Japan was reported to the National Assembly Secretariat accordingly to the National Assembly’s code of ethics, and the visit is an official National Assembly legislator’s overseas activity,” Youn said. “The assistance provided by the embassy falls within the scope of cooperation defined by the National Assembly Secretariat.”

On YouTube, she said she had nothing to hide and further suggested that she suspects ulterior motives behind the government’s attack.

The independent legislator on Monday was sued by civic groups for violating the National Security Law while the Unification Ministry is looking into the legislator violating the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act.

Under the regulation, every South Korean, before contacting North Korea or even those that are members of Pro-North organizations, has to report it to the Unification Ministry.

If not, the person could face a fine of 3 million won ($2,200). Under the election law, a legislator could be stripped of the title when slapped with a fine exceeding 1 million won.

She didn't inform the government about the pro-North group before attending the event.

“I had no intention or plan of meeting officials from Chongryon,” Youn said. “There were no reasons to make contact to share information or messages. And therefore, there were no reasons to report [about Chongryon] to the Unification Ministry.”

Wartime sex slavery survivor, Lee Yong-soo, accuses lawmaker Youn Mee-hyang of embezzling donation made the survivors when she was the head of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan during a press conference held at a hotel in Daegu on May 25, 2020. [YONHAP]

Critics allege that Youn has long surrounded herself with individuals, including her husband, with strong ties to North Korea.

Youn’s husband, Kim Sam-suk, was convicted of being a North Korean spy along with his sister, Kim Eun-joo, in 1994.

The two were convicted of providing confidential military information to a pro-North group.

The siblings requested a retrial 22 years later. While the court acknowledged the siblings' contact with a pro-North Korean group, it overturned the espionage convictions.

Youn’s aide of nearly two years is also being investigated by the authorities for contacting North Korean agents in Vietnam and sending encrypted texts to Pyongyang.

Youn herself was under the spotlight not long after she was elected into the National Assembly as a proportional lawmaker of the Democratic Party in April 2020.

Youn was accused of embezzling donations for surviving victims of Japanese wartime sex slavery given to the organization that she headed, the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]