Organizer Furious Over Complete Budget Cut for Changwon Unification Marathon... "Council Swayed by Female Lawmaker's Words"

The organizer of the Gyeongnam Changwon Unification Marathon strongly protested after the entire subsidy budget for next year from Changwon City was cut.

The Gyeongnam Headquarters of the June 15 Joint Declaration Implementation South Korea Committee held a press conference in front of the Changwon Special City Council on the 19th, condemning the Changwon City Council.

The June 15 Gyeongnam Headquarters stated, "The Changwon City Council completely cut the 32 million KRW subsidy for the Changwon Unification Marathon, which was reduced by 60% compared to the previous year," and criticized, "If Councilor Kim Mina's administrative inquiry is the reason for the complete cut of the subsidy, then the council has denied its own existence and made itself a laughingstock."

The South Gyeongsang Headquarters of the June 15 Joint Declaration Implementation South Side Committee is holding a press conference in front of Changwon Special City Council.
[Photo by Lee Seryeong]

The Changwon Unification Marathon has been held annually in Changwon since July 2001 to commemorate the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration of 2000.

The event is hosted by the Gyeongnam Headquarters of the June 15 Joint Declaration South Korea Committee and organized by the Changwon Unification Marathon Organizing Committee.

Earlier, on the 14th, Councilor Kim raised an administrative inquiry during the 3rd regular session of the 129th City Council, stating that the city subsidy should be stopped due to suspicions of the organizer's connection to a pro-North Korean organization, excessive tax spending, and poor documentation of the event.

Pointing out the execution status of Changwon City's local subsidies, she said, "City subsidies have been continuously paid to organizations suspected of being linked to pro-North Korean groups."

She presented evidence photos from the 2019 and 2020 project plans submitted by the June 15 Gyeongnam Headquarters, pointing out, "Although the image quality differs, the same photos were used."

The 129th Regular Session 3rd Plenary Meeting of the Changwon Special City Council in Gyeongnam is in progress.
[Photo by Changwon Special City Council]

The next day, the Changwon City Council proposed and approved a revised budget for next year amounting to 3.7066 trillion KRW, reduced by 743.22 billion KRW. In this process, the 61.2 million KRW subsidy for the Changwon Unification Marathon was completely cut.

The June 15 Gyeongnam Headquarters claimed that Councilor Kim's administrative inquiry contained clear false information and demanded ▲ restoration of the subsidy ▲ resignation of Councilor Kim ▲ apology from Chairman Kim Ui-geun ▲ expulsion of Councilor Kim.

The headquarters stated, "Councilor Kim claimed that the June 15 Joint Declaration Implementation Solidarity was confirmed as a pro-North Korean organization by the Supreme Court in July 2010, and used this as evidence that the June 15 Gyeongnam Headquarters is linked to a pro-North Korean group, but the June 15 Joint Declaration Implementation Solidarity is a name we have never heard of."

"The organization ruled as a pro-North Korean group was the North-South Joint Declaration Implementation Solidarity, which we understand was dissolved afterward," they emphasized, "This is a clear dissemination of false information."

"As Councilor Kim pointed out, the photos included in the 2019 and 2020 subsidy application project plans were the same, but this appears to be a mistake due to copying the previous year's documents without proper revision," they rebutted, "The settlement report contains the correct attachments."

Officials from the Gyeongnam Headquarters of the June 15 Joint Declaration Implementation South Korea Committee and the Changwon Unification Marathon event are having a meeting with Moon Soon-gyu, Vice Chairman of the Changwon City Council.
[Photo by Lee Se-ryeong]

After the press conference, the headquarters requested a meeting with Chairman Kim Ui-geun of the City Council, but as Chairman Kim was absent due to external schedules, they asked Deputy Chairman Moon Soon-gyu of the Democratic Party to arrange a meeting with the chairman and to restore the budget.

During the conversation, one official expressed a somewhat heated atmosphere, saying, "If a local council is swayed by one incompetent female councilor who speaks harshly and talks nonsense, what value does the council have?" and "What kind of local council is it where the city's budget fluctuates because of a female councilor who knows nothing? The council should be abolished."

Headquarters officials said, "Since Councilor Kim's statements are not true, the support budget must be restored," and "We will file a complaint against Councilor Kim for spreading false information."

"We want to know the chairman's thoughts and plans on whether to restore and include the event budget in the next supplementary budget," they said, "Please arrange a meeting before the end of this year."

Deputy Chairman Moon said, "I will organize the requests for budget restoration and the meeting and deliver them to the chairman."