Baek Hyunjin: "400 Million Won Spent on Kim Jung-sook's India Visit... Taxes Misused"

"The First Lady Is Not a Public Official... Yet Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Budget Used"
"Even If She Went, It Should Have Been Covered by the Blue House Secretariat Budget"

National Assembly member Bae Hyun-jin of the People Power Party raised her voice regarding suspicions about Kim Jung-sook, the spouse of former President Moon Jae-in, visiting India, stating, "It is wrong that taxes, which should be used for the people, were spent on inappropriate purposes."

On the 11th, Bae appeared on YTN Radio's 'News Fighting' and pointed out, "The First Lady is not a public official, so she cannot use the national budget," adding, "Since the President did not accompany her, the budget should have come from the Blue House Secretariat."

In particular, Bae criticized that Kim Jung-sook's visit to India at that time as a 'special envoy' under Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Do Jong-hwan was unprecedented. She explained, "When the President goes on a diplomatic tour, the First Lady goes as a special envoy," and "By imitating that, Minister Do's special envoy became Kim Jung-sook."

She continued, "Looking at the list of accompanying persons, most were Blue House Secretariat staff for protocol, so the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism raised concerns about violations of the National Finance Act and applied for contingency funds to make the trip," adding, "I suspect that the 'special envoy' status was a framework borrowed from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for presidential tours."

Regarding the background of raising the 'self-invitation' suspicion, Bae stated, "Minister Do Jong-hwan was invited by the Indian side, but in mid-October 2018, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs proposed to the Indian side to send an invitation letter so that the First Lady could also attend, and the invitation letter arrived on October 26. This confirms the self-invitation." She criticized, "It was an India visit that could have ended with about 25 million won, but by adding Kim Jung-sook to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, a budget of 400 million won was spent."

In response to the rebuttal that the Taj Mahal visit was at the request of the Indian side, she said, "This is also a budget issue," explaining, "The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs moved to receive emergency funds within three days. However, when applying to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the exact location and number of people going must be submitted without omission, but the itinerary submitted to the Ministry of Economy and Finance at that time did not include the Taj Mahal." She added, "Therefore, this is evidence that a fake itinerary was used to embezzle taxpayers' money."