Often found at theaters and museums, Kwon Mee-yoo has covered a wide range of cultural fields from K-pop and dramas to theater and fine art for over a decade. Now as K-Culture Desk editor, she tries to connect Korean culture with global readers through fresh perspectives.
Oceans minister nominee's wife embroiled in illegal porcelain sale
An Instagram post showing antique porcelain dishware at a cafe owned by Oceans and Fisheries Minister nominee Park Jun-young's wife, who is accused of illegally bringing in the pieces from the U.K. and selling them. Captured from Instagram
By Kwon Mee-yoo
By Kwon Mee-yoo
The wife of Oceans Minister nominee Park Jun-young has been accused of smuggling porcelain pieces into the country and illegally selling them.
According to Rep. Kim Sun-gyo of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), Park's wife, surnamed Woo, purchased antique porcelain tea cups and dishes when her husband was a minister counsellor at the Korean Embassy to the U.K. from 2015 to 2018. She then brought them into Korea as part of her diplomatic moving package without making a customs declaration
Woo opened a cafe in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, in December 2019 and allegedly sold some of the antique porcelain dishware at the cafe, which was registered as a restaurant business and thus legally not allowed to sell such items. She posted pictures of a large quantity of ceramic tea cups and dishes on the cafe's Instagram page and they were stated as for sale.
Rep. Kim claimed that the act violated customs laws, and that selling non-food products at a business not registered for a wholesale or retail business license is also illegal.
PPP deputy spokesma Hwang Kyu-hwan said in a statement, Saturday, "Importing and selling porcelain articles worth millions of won without declaring them at customs and registering them for retail sale is equivalent to smuggling.
"The Korea Coast Guard, in charge of catching maritime smuggling, is under the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. Park will face allegations that he is compromised if he becomes the oceans minister," Hwang said.
Park released an explanation, Saturday, saying that the porcelain in question was purchased by his wife at flea markets in the U.K. as a hobby.
"When she brought the porcelain from the U.K., they were secondhand articles of little worth and not intended for sale in Korea. They cleared customs as part of the whole moving package," Park said in the statement. "When my wife opened a cafe in 2019, she displayed the porcelain from her collection to differentiate it from other cafes and sold some of them not knowing what she was doing was illegal. I apologize for not meeting public expectations. I and my wife will cooperate with the authorities on the issues including customs evasion and retail business registration.”
Park, a career public official at the ministry, served as vice minister before being nominated for the ministerial position April 16.