Civic group files complaint against business lobby

A member of the Citizens?Coalition for Economic Justice holds a complaint against the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), before filing it with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors?Office, Thursday. The civic group claimed that the nation's largest business lobby financed right-wing group's rallies. / Yonhap

FKI allegedly supported right-wing group’s rallies

By Lee Kyung-min

A liberal civic group asked the prosecution Thursday to investigate allegations that the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), the nation’s largest business lobby, funneled money to a right-wing group in 2014 to organize pro-government and pro-business rallies.

The Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ) filed the complaint with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, following a media report Tuesday that the FKI allegedly transferred 120 million won ($105,000) between September and December 2014 to the conservative Korea Parent Federation (KPF).

The report claimed that the money was sent to a bank account controlled by KPF Director General Choo Sun-hee. The account was opened under the name of a now-defunct Christian missionary group.

Money from the account was then sent to the parents’ group, according to the report.

The money was allegedly offered in return for organizing pro-government and pro-business rallies by hiring North Korean defectors to participate in them.

The history of the transactions showed that 29 million won was sent to the head of a North Korean defectors’ group, surnamed Kim. Six million won was sent to the landlord of the building in which the KPF is currently a tenant.

Earlier, the weekly magazine Sisa Journal reported that the parents’ group hired 1,259 North Korean defectors as participants in 39 rallies against the commemoration of the Sewol ferry victims between April and November 2014.

According to the parents group’s account book, a total of 25.18 million won was spent to pay 20,000 won to each participant. The book contains the recipients’ names, their bank account numbers, and the date of the payments.

Since 2014 the group held rallies in favor of state-authored history textbooks for secondary school students and increased monitoring authority for the National Intelligence Service.

It also staged rallies to drum up support for deregulation bills in favor of conglomerates, while holding demonstrations against the victims of the sinking of the Sewol.

“We demand that the prosecution and the National Tax Service begin an investigation to find out whether the powerful business lobby was involved in illegal deals with the group in 2014,” the CCEJ said in a statement.

“The FKI is believed to have orchestrated a number of rallies to protect its own and the conservative administration’s interests.”

The CCEJ pointed out that the FKI might have engaged in breach of trust and tax evasion in the process of providing financial support for the parents’ group, while using aliases in the financial transactions.

The FKI is also facing allegations that it tried to prevent liberal civic groups from holding rallies by having the conservative group seek a police permit before they did.

Under the law, only those obtaining a police permit in advance are allowed to hold rallies at major locations, including city hall and Gwanghwamun Square, central Seoul.

The 613-member FKI is comprised of the nation’s conglomerates including Samsung, Hyundai, GS, SK, Lotte and Hanwha.

An FKI official was unavailable for comment.

Alongside the FKI, the Korean National Police Veterans Association (KNPVA), a retired police officers’ group, faces allegations of transferring over 20 million won to an account belonging to another North Korean defectors group last year, drawing a strong backlash from many retired officers.

The state-supported association is required to maintain political neutrality, critics said.

“The KNPVA is resorting to a cowardly act to advance their politically-motivated causes, hiding behind North Korean defectors,” one retired officer said during a protest Wednesday.

Also, another allegation said that Cheong Wa Dae was involved in giving instructions to the parents’ group to hold pro-government rallies.

The Sisa Journal reported that a political affairs official at Cheong Wa Dae controlled the KPF and another conservative mothers’ group comprised of North Korean defectors.

The magazine cited a KPF official as saying that the presidential office was seeking revenge against the group after it refused to hold a rally in favor of a verbal agreement between Korea and Japan on the sexual slavery victims issue last December. Tokyo offered 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) in payment to the victims.

In response, Cheong Wa Dae issued a statement denying the report. “The Sisa Journal report is inaccurate,” presidential spokesman Jeong Yeon-guk told reporters, refusing to answer whether it would ask for a correction from the magazine.

Opposition political parties issued statements demanding that the National Assembly launch a probe to determine where the money came from and under what conditions, and how it was spent.