The leader of a hardline conservative civic group that has held rallies insulting victims of Japan's wartime "comfort women" system has been arrested.
Judge Lee Ji-young of the Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant on the 20th following a pre-indictment detention hearing for Kim Byung-hun, head of the National Action to Abolish Comfort Women Laws, citing concerns he may flee.
Kim is accused of holding banners with phrases such as "Are they providing prostitution career guidance by erecting comfort women statues on school grounds?" in front of Seocho High School in Seocho-gu and Muhak Girls' High School in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, in December last year. Since February 2024, Kim has also staged protests at "Statues of Peace" across the country, placing masks reading "Remove" on them or draping them with black plastic bags.
Police launched an investigation and applied for an arrest warrant on the 13th of this month, charging Kim with defamation under the Information and Communications Network Act, defamation of the deceased, violation of the Child Welfare Act, and violation of the Assembly and Demonstration Act. In the warrant application, police emphasized the high risk of recidivism, noting Kim had repeatedly posted content on social media insulting comfort women victims as "prostitutes" and announced plans to continue protests demanding removal of the statues.
President Lee Jae-myung commented on the case on X (formerly Twitter) on January 6th this year, sharing a report about the police investigation into Kim and describing it as "senseless defamation of the deceased." On the 1st of last month, Lee further criticized: "Calling war crime sex slavery victims prostitutes—no citizen of Korea, no human being could do this. To build a world fit for people, we must either rehabilitate or isolate those beasts who harm others."
Meanwhile, attorney Kwon Woo-hyun, who represents former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, avoided detention despite causing a disturbance in court. Kwon is accused of refusing to comply with the court's order to leave and shouting "Is this the Korean judiciary?" during the trial of former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo's insurrection case in November last year. The court sentenced Kwon to a total of 20 days of contempt detention at the time, but execution was suspended due to his "unknown whereabouts." The National Court Administration under the Supreme Court had previously filed a complaint with police in November last year against the former minister's defense attorneys on charges including contempt of court and defamation.
