By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism dismissed Kim Jeong-heon as chairman of Arts Council Korea after he violated rules concerning the council's promotional funds.
The ministry conducted a special audit of the council's promotional funds from Nov. 26 to Dec. 1. Findings showed that the council approved entrusting 70 billion won to five C-grade financial institutions, which is prohibited by law. The investment resulted in a 10.1 billion won loss for the arts council. During Kim's tenure, he approved two cases of such investment, incurring about 5.4 billion won in losses.
Kim, who was appointed chairman of the council last year by then-president Roh Moo-hyun, had refused to step down from his post when the new administration took office earlier this year. There has been pressure on Kim and other heads of various arts and cultural organizations, who were considered President Roh's political appointees, to resign. Even Culture Minister Yu In-chon had called for their resignations.
Kim was a co-leader of Cultural Action and a left-wing artist who was involved in protests against the deployment of Korean troops to Iraq and the free trade agreement with the United States. His socialist views seemed incompatible with the views of the current administration.
Arts Council Korea was formed in 2005, following the Korea Culture and Arts Foundation, which was founded in 1973. The council is composed of 11 members representing various disciplines of the arts and appointed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
The Arts Council Korea has an annual budget of around 100 billion won to sponsor Korean artists and various artistic and cultural activities.