By Kim Hyo-jin
President Park Geun-hye allegedly refused to send a congratulatory message to novelist Han Kang after she won the Man Booker International Prize because she was on a blacklist of figures in the arts, according to the independent counsel team, Thursday.
The team said it secured testimony from Cheong Wa Dae officials that the culture ministry asked Park to congratulate Han after she won the prize in May last year. However, the President rejected the request, citing that she was on the blacklist, it said.
If proved true, this means that even President Park used the blacklist as a yardstick on whether to support artists.
Last week, the counsel team said that the blacklist — which contains the names of nearly 10,000 artists and institutions — was drawn up by the Park administration, and it was now looking into how it was created and how much it was used to exclude people on the list from state subsidies.
Han won the Man Booker International Prize for her novel "The Vegetarian," becoming the first Korean to receive the highly regarded literary award.
Sending a congratulatory message to pioneering awardees is part of the President's routine work.
Park congratulated pianist Cho Seong-jin, winner of the 2015 International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition; golfer Park In-bee, the gold medalist at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics; and skater Kim Yu-na, winner of the 2013 World Championships.
The team said the reason for Park's refusal was because Han was listed as a cultural figure who did not support the government.
Han was reportedly put on the list for her novel "Human Acts," which depicted the Gwangju Democratization Movement of 1980.
The independent counsel requested arrest warrants Monday for four key suspects in the blacklist allegation on charges of abuse of power, three of whom — ex-Culture Minister Kim Jong-deok, ex-Vice Culture Minister Chung Kwan-joo and Shin Dong-cheol, former presidential secretary for political affairs — were arrested Wednesday.
They were allegedly involved in drawing up the list for the purpose of monitoring anti-government cultural figures and organizations, and excluding them from state subsidies.
Kim and Chung face additional charges of perjury as they had said in a previous parliamentary hearing that they did not know anything about the list.
The counsel team is expected to soon question Culture Minister Cho Yoon-sun and former presidential chief of staff Kim Ki-choon, who also played a part in creating the list.
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| Han Kang |
The team said it secured testimony from Cheong Wa Dae officials that the culture ministry asked Park to congratulate Han after she won the prize in May last year. However, the President rejected the request, citing that she was on the blacklist, it said.
If proved true, this means that even President Park used the blacklist as a yardstick on whether to support artists.
Last week, the counsel team said that the blacklist — which contains the names of nearly 10,000 artists and institutions — was drawn up by the Park administration, and it was now looking into how it was created and how much it was used to exclude people on the list from state subsidies.
Han won the Man Booker International Prize for her novel "The Vegetarian," becoming the first Korean to receive the highly regarded literary award.
Sending a congratulatory message to pioneering awardees is part of the President's routine work.
Park congratulated pianist Cho Seong-jin, winner of the 2015 International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition; golfer Park In-bee, the gold medalist at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics; and skater Kim Yu-na, winner of the 2013 World Championships.
The team said the reason for Park's refusal was because Han was listed as a cultural figure who did not support the government.
Han was reportedly put on the list for her novel "Human Acts," which depicted the Gwangju Democratization Movement of 1980.
The independent counsel requested arrest warrants Monday for four key suspects in the blacklist allegation on charges of abuse of power, three of whom — ex-Culture Minister Kim Jong-deok, ex-Vice Culture Minister Chung Kwan-joo and Shin Dong-cheol, former presidential secretary for political affairs — were arrested Wednesday.
They were allegedly involved in drawing up the list for the purpose of monitoring anti-government cultural figures and organizations, and excluding them from state subsidies.
Kim and Chung face additional charges of perjury as they had said in a previous parliamentary hearing that they did not know anything about the list.
The counsel team is expected to soon question Culture Minister Cho Yoon-sun and former presidential chief of staff Kim Ki-choon, who also played a part in creating the list.
