'Suspicion of Subsidy Law Violation' Ministry of Culture Requests Investigation of Chulhyup President... Chulhyup Says "Hard to Understand Persecution"

Ministry of Culture Requests Police Investigation into Yoon Cheol-ho, Chairman of the Korea Publishers Association, and Joo Il-woo, Representative of the International Book Fair
Korea Publishers Association: "Difficult to Understand Persecution of Publishing Organizations... Will Take Legal Action for Defamation"

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 3rd that it has requested an investigation by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency into Yoon Cheol-ho, president of the Korea Publishers Association, and Ju Il-woo, representative of the Seoul International Book Fair, on charges of violating the ‘Act on the Management of Subsidies’ in connection with allegations of missing revenue from the Seoul International Book Fair. The Publishers Association has countered, stating that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has defamed publishers and vowed to hold it legally accountable.

The Seoul International Book Fair is an event held by the Publishers Association with support from the Korea Publication Industry Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. According to the Ministry, about 1 billion KRW in government subsidies are invested annually. The Ministry has been conducting an audit, stating that the Publishers Association was required to settle and report subsidy and revenue details to the Publication Industry Promotion Agency according to subsidy regulations after the event’s conclusion, but the reporting was inadequate.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Park Bo-gyun [Photo by Yonhap News]

Regarding the audit results, the Ministry stated that many parts of the transaction details in the copies of bankbook statements for the book fair revenues from 2018 to 2022 submitted by the Publishers Association were deleted or redacted (marked as blank in white), and that a comparison with the original bankbooks confirmed that several hundred million KRW of revenue was missing. The Ministry has requested an investigation by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, considering the possibility of intentional omission by the Publishers Association, to ascertain the exact facts.

Park Bo-gyun, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said, “There are no exceptions in tracking and clarifying suspicions of deviation and waste related to taxes that contain the sweat, blood, and tears of the people. This investigation request is a duty to the public who provided the tax money, and it is also unavoidable to protect the honor of all member companies of the Publishers Association. The reckless and absurd act of redacting information, which would not be done if there were no suspicions, is a mystery, and I hope the investigation will reveal clear facts.”

Regarding the subsidy law violation charges raised by the Ministry, the Publishers Association has argued that it has never completed the settlement of the International Book Fair without approval from the Ministry’s officials and the Publication Industry Promotion Agency, and that the obligation to return excess profits from the International Book Fair to the state is not stipulated by law. They are demanding the dismissal of Minister Park Bo-gyun.

On the 3rd, the Publishers Association stated in a press release, “We submitted the bankbook used for the book fair over 26 years with redactions on items deemed unrelated to the matter. (Omitted) According to the subsidy law, subsidy management information must protect the personal information of indirect subsidy recipients and related parties, so redaction was unavoidable.” They added, “We cannot understand why the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism suddenly intervened and is oppressing the publishing organization with baseless claims.”

The Publishers Association announced that it will take legal action against the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, accusing the Ministry of “baseless defamation and damaging the honor of the Publishers Association and publishers.”

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