Song Young-gil: "The 75.8 million won received by Yoon Mi-hyang's father is not an annual salary... It pains me to see negative insinuations"

Yoon Mi-hyang's Father Received 1.2 Million Won Monthly for 6 Years to Operate Comfort Women Shelter
Justice Foundation: "Requested Due to Experience Managing Church Parsonage"

Democratic Party candidate Song Young-gil, elected in the 21st general election for Incheon Gyeyang-eul, is giving a greeting at the 'Meeting of Elected Members of the National Assembly' held at Incheon City Hall in Namdong-gu, Incheon, on the morning of the 24th of last month. / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Lim Juhyung] Song Young-gil, a Democratic Party lawmaker, referred to the payment of management fees to the father of Yoon Mee-hyang, the elected member of the Democratic Party of Korea, who entrusted the management of a comfort women victims' shelter to her father, saying "it is not a large amount."

On the 19th, Song appeared on CBS Radio's "Kim Hyun-jung's News Show" and commented on the issue of the management fees received by Yoon's father for the shelter, saying, "I want to point out this one thing. The media reported that 75.8 million won was paid to Yoon Mee-hyang's father, so I thought it was an annual salary, but upon closer inspection, that was not the case."

He continued, "If she had employed her father and paid him a monthly salary of 3 to 4 million won, or an annual salary of 75 million won, I would certainly consider that a big problem, but it turns out it was 1.2 million won over six years," adding, "If there are inappropriate aspects, they should be addressed, but everything should follow the principle of proportionality. It is really painful to see the media using headlines to lead people to a negative perception."

He also added, "There should be at least a minimum respect for the life of a civic activist who has fought on the comfort women issue during difficult times."

Earlier, on the 16th, the Justice and Memory Foundation stated in a press release that Yoon's father took charge of managing the shelter called "House Where Peace and Healing Meet" in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, at his daughter's request.

According to the release, Yoon's father received 1.2 million won per month, including base pay and allowances, for over five years from January 2014 to June 2018. From July 2018 to April 2020, due to difficulties in operating the shelter project, he received 500,000 won per month. The total labor cost paid to Yoon's father over the past six years amounted to 75.8 million won.

In response, the Justice and Memory Foundation apologized, saying, "We think it was inconsiderate to designate a relative as the manager," but explained, "Since no one was residing at the shelter and there were concerns about management negligence, we requested Yoon's father, who had experience managing a church parsonage, to manage the building."

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