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Park Jin-young, co-chairman of the Popular Culture Exchange Committee, said he had not initially known he was receiving a monthly allowance of about 2 million won ($1,400) for the post, responding to criticism that the payment contradicts his earlier description of the role as unpaid.
Appearing on SBS Radio’s “Kim Tae-hyun’s Political Show” on the morning of the 6th, Park said the criticism was “entirely valid,” adding, “At first, I didn’t know I was receiving it.” He said, “I found out later, but it was a necessary arrangement, so I couldn’t refuse.”
Park had previously described his work on the committee as unpaid. But People Power Party lawmaker Bae Hyun-jin said in a recent Facebook post that she had “confirmed through government budget disbursement records that Chairman Park Jin-young is not doing ‘unpaid volunteer work’ but is receiving monthly expenses, overseas travel costs and support staff.”
On the broadcast, Park said, “Since I said I would do this without pay, even though the post is at the ministerial level, I feel more inclined to say ‘I won’t take it’ and return the money.” He said, “That’s because once your sincerity is questioned, it becomes hard to work. Rather than taking 2 million won, having my sincerity doubted and possibly losing momentum, it would be better not to take even this allowance, since I already said it was unpaid, in order to maintain that stance.”
He continued, “That said, there will be more work done jointly by the public and private sectors going forward, and I thought what I am doing should become a good example for a public-private cooperation system.” He added, “If I don’t take even a certain level of expenses, then whoever comes after me will hear, ‘Park Jin-young didn’t take a penny, so why are you trying to take it?’ Then who would do this kind of work?”
Park also addressed the fact that JYP Entertainment, the company he belongs to, filed a trademark application for “Phenomenon,” the large-scale concert project the committee is pursuing. “Last time we announced the Phenomenon plan, and if someone else registers it, we can’t use it. We had to register it quickly. And our company has a team that handles this,” he said.
“We filed it, and once there is someone in charge at the government or a dedicated company, we have to hand it over,” he said, rejecting the suspicions directly. “Do you really think JYP would keep all the trademark rights while doing this? Then who would want to work with us?”
Choi Hwi-young, the committee’s other co-chairman and minister of culture, sports and tourism, said on the 1st that domestic and overseas trademark rights to “Phenomenon” would be held in equal halves by the government and a joint venture to be created by the four major entertainment agencies, and that the event would be funded with private money raised by the dedicated company rather than direct government budget spending.
Park said, “We decided to do it with private money rather than government money. Otherwise, I didn’t think we could make it a success.” He added, “In return for the private sector carrying it out, the trademark rights are split in half so they cannot be turned to private gain. We also had a contract signed between the joint venture of the four major agencies and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. In this way, we put in place mechanisms to preserve the public interest.”
Park is scheduled to appear on the 7th as a witness at the National Assembly Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee’s parliamentary audit of the culture ministry, where he is expected to explain his position.
“If my sincerity is questioned — if people say, ‘You claim the goal is the public interest, but isn’t the real aim private gain?’ — the work becomes extremely difficult,” Park said. “So I contacted the National Assembly first and said I would appear as a witness. I was told that an unsworn witness called for reference does not take an oath and therefore has no chance of being charged with perjury, but I said I would go as a witness, who can be charged.”
#ParkJinyoung#JYPEntertainment#KpopPolicy#Phenomenon#NationalAssembly#CultureMinistry
Original reporting by Choi Soo-moon for Seoul Economic Daily.
AI-translated from Korean. Quotes from foreignxact original wording
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