An independent with a dubious identity

Rep. Yoon Mee-hyang must not think she can get away by accusing the government of making her an ideological scapegoat.

Independent lawmaker Youn Mee-hyang issued a remorseless statement on her controversial attendance to a memorial service hosted by a pro-North Korean group in Japan for the massacred ethnic Koreans during the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake. She claimed that the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, better known as Chongryon, was just one of many organizations involved in the event. Her brazen explanation raises suspicion about her eligibility as a legislator.

The act of grieving for the victims of the pogrom against ethnic Koreans after the earthquake a century ago — which the Japanese government refuses to acknowledge even today — is meaningful. But the event Youn attended on Sept. 1 clearly had a North Korean flavor. It was attended by the leadership of Chongryon, including its head Huh Jong-man, who was awarded the highest honor and medal of merit from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in 2020. A senior of the group in the memorial address called the South Korean government “the South Joseon puppet.” It was clearly not a place for a South Korean lawmaker

Yoon attended the event instead of a memorial service hosted by the pro-Seoul Korean Resident Association in Japan backed by the South Korean embassy in Japan. Because she had informed the embassy of her visit to Tokyo through the Foreign Ministry, embassy officials tended to her entry process at the airport and escorted her to her lodging. Yet she went to a pro-Pyongyang group’s event. But she lied that she had not been invited to the event hosted by the pro-Seoul group and blamed the embassy for neglecting to inform her. She is also suspected of joining a rally by Chongryon to demand subsidies for Joseon schools, or North Korean schools, as they teach North Korean ideology with portraits of former leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-il hanging in the classrooms.

Yoon claimed she did not break the National Security Act, as she left the event after simply laying a flower. But Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho said she broke the law because she did not seek prior permission. President Yoon Suk Yeol demanded a stern response to any “anti-state” activities that shakes the very foundation of free democracy. The governing People Power Party (PPP) is seeking her expulsion from the legislature and she faces an investigation as multiple groups have filed charges against her.

She joined the legislature as a proportional representative of a satellite party of the Democratic Party (DP) for her contribution to defending the rights of former sex slaves for the Japanese imperial army. But she is being tried on charges of embezzling the funding for the aged survivors. She must not think she can get away by accusing the government of making her an ideological scapegoat.