Cultural Heritage Administrator Apologizes
By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
You Hong-june, head of the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA), Friday apologized for having used the budget for buying books authored by himself.
The administrator said he is sorry for the criticism that it was inappropriate for the CHA to buy You's books out of state coffer and distribute them for promoting agency activities. ``All profits yielded will be donated to the national trust for preserving cultural heritage and I will be careful in the future lest this kind of incident should happen again,'' he said in a statement.
You, a former university professor and art critic, is the writer of several books including the long-time bestseller series ``My Exploration of Cultural Heritage,'' published in the 1990s. He has been serving as the CHA administrator since September 2004.
You recently came under criticism when it was revealed that the CHA used about 20 million won of its budget for purchasing five kinds of his books to distribute them for promoting cultural heritage of Korea.
The outspoken scholar had created several ideological controversies during his term in public office. In January 2005, his decision to replace the signboard of the Gwanghwamun Gate, written in calligraphy by former President Park Chung-hee, invited protests from the conservatives. He also said that Hyeonchungsa Shrine, which commemorates Admiral Yi Sun-shin, was more like an individual memorial of Park, for which he promptly apologized.
In June 2005, You also issued an apology when the conservatives accused him of acting inappropriately as head of the stage agency _ he had sung a North Korean pop song during a casual meeting of South-North delegations in Pyeongyang, held in celebration of the June 15, 2000 Joint Declaration anniversary.