New York Consul General on Liberation Day Speech Controversy: "A Statement of Conviction... No Intention to Apologize"

NY Single Inspection Committee Audit
Kim Eui-hwan "I Have Never Made Inappropriate Remarks"

Consul General Kim Eui-hwan in New York expressed on the 12th (local time) that he does not consider his direct criticism of Chairman Lee Jong-chan of the Liberation Association’s commemorative speech at the Liberation Day event held in New York last August to be inappropriate behavior, stating it was a statement of conviction.

At the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee’s audit held at the Korean Mission to the United Nations in Manhattan, New York, Kim said, "I have no intention of apologizing for my remarks at the Liberation Day commemorative event." This was in response to Democratic Party lawmaker Jo Jeong-sik pointing out Kim’s remarks at the event and asking if he intended to apologize.

To lawmaker Jo, who criticized him for political bias, Kim retorted, "Specifically, what part of my remarks was politically biased?" and reiterated that he made a statement of conviction in a situation where the Liberation Association held the Liberation Day event separately, causing the Korean government to be insulted.

Regarding Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yeol’s earlier comment that he did not fully agree with Kim’s remarks at the Liberation Day event, Kim responded, "If I were the Foreign Minister, I would have said that since the head of the mission spoke with conviction, I do not see it as a big problem."

Earlier, at the Liberation Day event held in New York last August, Kim said after hearing the commemorative speech by Yoo Jin-hee, Chairperson of the New York branch of the Liberation Association, "I felt I had to keep sitting here after hearing such a nonsensical speech." At that time, Chairperson Yoo read aloud the Liberation Day commemorative speech by Lee Jong-chan, Chairman of the Liberation Association, who criticized the movement to establish Constitution Day. The Constitution Day controversy is a long-standing debate over the proposal to commemorate August 15, 1948, the founding date of the Republic of Korea, as the day Korea was established. At that time, Kim criticized, "Some factions in Korea have polluted even the meaningful Liberation Day, which honors the sacrifices of patriotic martyrs and strengthens the will for the prosperity and unity of the Republic of Korea, with muddled political logic through indiscriminate anti-Japanese claims."