The head of South Korea's ruling party resigned yesterday amid suggestions that he had covered up his father's past as a military policeman for Japanese occupiers. The resignation comes during renewed national debate on the role of collaborators under colonial rule.
Shin Ki-nam, chairman of the ruling Uri party, had previously said his father was only a teacher during the 1910-45 occupation. But this week, he was forced to admit his father worked for the Japanese forces, confirming a magazine report.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The implication that Shin may have lied to cover up his father's past has made him a political liability as the country reassesses the colonial period. President Roh Moo-hyun has called for government investigations into the pro-Japanese activities of collaborators.
Roh has said those whose ancestors were collaborators wouldn't face punishment or have any rights restricted.
Still, Shin said he was stepping down from the party's chairmanship so he wouldn't be an obstacle to the inquiries, and to "lessen difficulties that the party is experiencing because of me."
Shin apologized to those who fought for Korean independence, bowing his head before journalists at a news conference yesterday. "In place of my father, I deeply apologize and seek forgiveness," he said.
Over the weekend in a speech marking the 59th anniversary of Korean liberation from Japanese rule, Roh called for a renewed look at collaborators -- an issue never intensely investigated in independent South Korea.
Several government agencies have already responded to the plea and launched investigations.
Shin said the past three days since the revelations had been the most difficult in his life, and that he would seek to unearth more about his father's history. He said before recent media reports that he only vaguely knew that his father was with the Japanese military, but didn't know details such as his father serving as a military police officer.
Shin said it wasn't easy for him to reveal his position because it concerned his father, who has always been the "object of my respect and pride."
"To be honest, the recent detailed reports of my father are shocking for me, and I still find it difficult to believe everything. I plan to check into it myself," Shin said.
Some media have even reported allegations of people who said they were tortured by Shin's father.
Moves to investigate that period have drawn opposition criticism, with the main opposition Grand National Party condemning Roh's plans to investigate collaborators as a political ploy aimed at staining its chairwoman, Park Geun-hye.
Her father was an officer in the Japanese army and former military ruler of South Korea.
Shin had assumed the party's chairmanship in May after the previous head, Chung Dong-young, stepped aside to become unification minister.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion