Ministry of the Interior and Safety Requests Donation Ledger and Receipts from Jeongui Gieok Yeondae

For Verification Purposes Such as Compliance with Administrative Procedures and Document Storage

Lee Nayoung, Chairperson of the Justice Memory Solidarity, held a press conference on the morning of the 11th at the People Human Rights Foundation in Mapo-gu, Seoul, to address the controversy over donation funds. Photo by Kim Hyunmin kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The government has decided to directly verify the donation-related details of the Comfort Women Victims Support Organization, Justice and Memory Solidarity, which has been embroiled in controversy over the use of donation funds.

On the 12th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that it sent an official letter on the 11th to Justice and Memory Solidarity requesting the submission of cashbooks containing details of donation collection and expenditures.

Currently, organizations intending to collect donations must register their donation collection with the metropolitan local government or the Ministry of the Interior and Safety according to the "Act on the Collection and Use of Donations." If the collection target exceeds 1 billion KRW, registration must be made with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. Justice and Memory Solidarity also registered with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety as their target exceeded 1 billion KRW.

By law, donation collectors must prepare and maintain books and documents showing the status of donation collection and usage details. The registration authority, including the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, may request the submission of related documents or books from the collector when necessary to verify whether the donation collection and receipt activities violate the law.

If the collector's target amount is 5 billion KRW or more, an inspection must usually be conducted at least once during the one-year collection period; however, Justice and Memory Solidarity's target is below 5 billion KRW, so it is not subject to annual inspection.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety requested data from Justice and Memory Solidarity for 2017?2018. Since the donations collected in 2019 and 2020 have not yet been fully used, they decided to review the previous two years' data first.

An official from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety explained, "Since suspicions regarding Justice and Memory Solidarity's use of donations have continued to surface in the media, we requested the submission of documents as part of an inspection," adding, "We want to confirm whether they have complied with administrative procedures and have the necessary documents on hand."

If violations are found during the inspection, the donation collection registration may be revoked. If the registration is revoked, the collector must return the collected funds to the donors. However, the revocation of the collection registration is separate from the revocation of the organization's registration.

Earlier, on the 7th, Comfort Women victim grandmother Lee Yong-soo criticized the opaque use of Justice and Memory Solidarity's sponsorship funds and declared that she would not participate in the Wednesday Demonstrations.

On the 11th, Justice and Memory Solidarity held a press conference explaining that "41% of the donations were spent on projects for Comfort Women victims," but controversies are spreading over the specific use of the sponsorship funds and suspicions regarding the source of study abroad funds for the children of Yoon Mi-hyang, a former chairperson of the organization and elected member of the Democratic Party of Korea.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.