Ex-veterans affairs minister in hot seat
Former Patriots and Veterans Affairs Minister Park Sung-choon may face an investigation over his alleged mishandling of veterans affairs during his six-year tenure.
He was one of the two Cabinet members of the previous Park Geun-hye administration who President Moon Jae-in dismissed the day after his inauguration. The other was Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn.
This indicates that Park was the highest priority on the President’s sacking list.
Park has been viewed as a controversial figure spurring ideological division in the country.
He has been a stalwart supporter for a ban on singing the pro-democracy song, “March for the Beloved,” during a government-led ceremony commemorating the May 18 democratic uprising in Gwangju in 1980.
The conservative Lee Myung-bak administration had the song performed only by a choir beginning in 2011.
Liberal lawmakers and bereaved families of victims in the Gwangju uprising called on Lee’s successor to designate the song to be sung by all participants at the memorial service.
But they were ignored while then Minister Park remained a strong defender of the ban, calling the song “one for North Korean sympathizers.”
In a 2014 a report submitted to the National Assembly, the veterans ministry interpreted that its lyrics were to praise North Korea’s founder Kim Il-sung and socialist revolution, the same logic presented by far-rightists.
The opposition parties proposed a motion to sack the ideologically-biased minister three times in 2013, 2015, and 2016.
The latest motion was caused by his plan to have the 11th Airborne Troop participate in a parade in Gwangju during a ceremony commemorating the Korean War. The unit was the one engaged in the bloody suppression back in the 1980s movement.
The controversy surrounding Park has yet to be resolved. Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the Bareun Party claimed Thursday that the Board of Audit (BAI) and Inspection should investigate the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs for fanning ideological division based on a “false reason.”
He pointed out North Korean defectors testified that the song has even been banned in the North, dismissing the ministry’s logic that it glorifies the North Korean regime.
“It is inevitable to inspect the ministry that has sabotaged national unity by distorting the pro-democracy song,” he said.
There is much room for his rightist move to be stretched to punishable illegality, observers say, as it is linked to abuse of authority.
The BAI revealed earlier that Park wielded undue influence in having the former head of the presidential security team Ahn Hyun-tae, who worked for former President Chun Doo-hwan, at the national cemetery.
Chun is believed to have ordered the bloody suppression of the Gwangju Uprising, a democratization movement held against his military coup. Park fed much controversy, calling Ahn, Chung’s security head, “General.”
Park is also accused of overlooking lax management of the Korea Veterans Association, the organization under the ministry’s oversight, and a corruption scandal involving the association head.
In 2011, soon after taking the post, Park distributed controversial DVDs where pro-democratization movements were described as activities by North Korea sympathizers.