Controversy Over "Pro-Japanese Regime" Kim Won-woong's Memorial Speech... Opposition Unitedly Opposes, "President Moon's Responsibility"

"Not the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea but the Joseon Governor-General's Office"
"Pro-Japanese regime fell in the Candlelight Revolution but vested interests remain"
Opposition: "Tired of pro-Japanese exploitation", "Last Liberation Day speech of the term... ignoring the people's lives"

Kim Won-woong, President of the Liberation Association [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Seung-gon] "The pro-Japanese cartel structure remains unchanged, and I want to create a Republic of Korea without pro-Japanese collaborators."

Kim Won-woong, chairman of the Liberation Association, sparked controversy on the 15th by defining the regimes of Syngman Rhee, Park Chung-hee, Chun Doo-hwan, and Park Geun-hye as pro-Japanese forces during the Liberation Day commemorative ceremony. The People Power Party immediately reacted with criticism. Some even pointed out that this might be a 'pro-Japanese frame.'

On the same day (the 15th), at the celebration attended by President Moon Jae-in, Kim said in a commemorative speech broadcast via video, "The pro-Japanese cabinet of the Syngman Rhee regime was overthrown by the April 19 Revolution, the anti-national Park Chung-hee regime collapsed on its own, the Chun Doo-hwan regime knelt down to the June Struggle, and the Park Geun-hye regime was impeached by the Candlelight Revolution." He added, "The people have overthrown successive regimes rooted in pro-Japanese collaboration again and again," and said, "These forces believe that the legal legitimacy of the Republic of Korea lies not with the Provisional Government but with the Japanese Governor-General of Korea."

He also said, "Our people have fought against pro-Japanese regimes as a continuation of the independence movement," and "Although the regime rooted in pro-Japanese collaboration was overthrown by the Candlelight Revolution, the pro-Japanese anti-national vested interest structure that enabled them to come to power still maintains a cartel structure."

The opposition party immediately pushed back. The People Power Party called Kim's remarks "an extremely biased view of history" and demanded his resignation. Shin In-kyu, the full-time deputy spokesperson, criticized in a statement that day, "It was a reckless commemorative speech that abandoned the duty of political neutrality," and said, "He polluted the Liberation Day ceremony into a stage for his own politics."

President Moon Jae-in is applauding after watching the pre-recorded commemorative speech by Kim Won-woong, President of the Liberation Association, at the 76th Liberation Day Celebration held on the 15th at Culture Station Seoul 284 in Jung-gu, Seoul.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Criticism of President Moon Jae-in also continued. Deputy spokesperson Shin argued, "The president also bears fundamental responsibility for neglecting Kim's repeated reckless remarks every year and thereby abetting national division. He should be removed from the position of Liberation Association chairman through the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs."

Presidential candidates from the People Power Party also united in criticism. Kim Byung-min, spokesperson for former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl's campaign, pointed out in a statement, "Hearing that the content of Kim's commemorative speech, full of sophistry and hatred, was coordinated with the government side beforehand, I am confused about what the government truly wants to say in commemorating Liberation Day."

Former Jeju Governor Won Hee-ryong criticized Kim on his Facebook post, calling him "your tiresome pro-Japanese pandering," and said, "The ideological delusion of the Moon Jae-in regime, which is destroying the lives of the people entirely, is further disgracing the meaningful Liberation Day." He added, "Kim Won-woong, you are not the kind of person whom the Republic of Korea should curse and ridicule."

The public relations special team of former Board of Audit and Inspection Chairman Choi Jae-hyung commented, "Most of Syngman Rhee's first cabinet members were independence activists, but a considerable number of North Korea's first cabinet were pro-Japanese collaborators," and questioned, "Why do they disparage Syngman Rhee's cabinet forcibly while keeping silent about North Korea's pro-Japanese cabinet?"

Former lawmaker Yoo Seung-min's campaign spokesperson Kwon Sung-joo said in a statement, "President Moon should immediately discipline the government officials who failed to filter such expressions and Chairman Kim," and warned, "Otherwise, the public will interpret Kim's remarks as President Moon's intention."

Criticism also arose regarding President Moon's Liberation Day congratulatory address. People Power Party lawmaker Park Jin wrote on his SNS, "The last Liberation Day congratulatory address of his term was again a self-praise festival that ignored the painful lives of the people," and pointed out, "There was not even a single word of apology or responsibility for failures such as vaccine procurement and the collapse of the people's economy." Regarding the remark that "the COVID-19 crisis is being overcome more stably than in any advanced country," he criticized it as "the pinnacle of self-praise that only sees what it wants to see and hears what it wants to hear."

Meanwhile, this is not the first time Kim has defined and criticized past regimes as pro-Japanese forces. In last year's Liberation Day commemorative speech, Kim described the Syngman Rhee government as a regime that "violently disbanded the Special Investigation Committee on Anti-National Activities and colluded with pro-Japanese collaborators," criticizing it as "the only country that failed to properly purge national traitors," which sparked controversy.

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