▲ Veterans Minister Park Min-shik speaks during a parliamentary meeting on Sept. 6, 2023. (Yonhap)

ex-president-defamation suit

Ex-President Moon to sue veterans minister for defaming his father

SEOUL, Sept. 6 (Yonhap) -- Former President Moon Jae-in plans to file a defamation suit against Veterans Minister Park Min-shik for suggesting that his father was a pro-Japanese figure, according to an opposition lawmaker Wednesday.

Park made the remark during a parliamentary meeting earlier in the day, saying Moon's father served in a regional government in Hungnam, a city in what is now North Korea, during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

"Former President Moon plans to file a lawsuit against Minister Park for defaming the deceased," Rep. Youn Kun-young of the main opposition Democratic Party, who served as Moon's senior presidential secretary, told reporters.

Youn strongly refuted the minister's remarks, categorizing them as baseless lies. He clarified that Moon's father had worked there following the liberation of Korea and not during the colonial rule period.

The minister's remarks were made while he was making a comparison to another historical figure, Gen. Paik Sun-yup, who is widely credited for his contributions to the country during the Korean War of 1950-1953.

Despite being credited with leading key battles during the conflict, a presidential committee put Paik on a list of pro-Japanese figures in 2009, citing his military service for Manchukuo, a puppet state of Imperial Japan, during Tokyo's colonial rule.

In July, the veterans ministry deleted a state burial record describing Paik as a pro-Japanese figure.

Several past figures, such as Paik and independence fighter Hong Beom-do, have recently become subjects of political debate due to their complex past records.

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