"Such Nonsense"... President Lee Expresses Outrage at Hate Rallies Targeting Comfort Women

[Financial News] President Lee Jae-myung on the 6th strongly condemned the far-right civic group leaders who have been traveling across the country, disparaging comfort women as prostitutes and demanding the removal of the Statue of Peace. He described their actions as "utterly senseless defamation of the dead."
On this day, President Lee posted a brief message on his X (formerly Twitter) account, sharing a link to a related article.
The linked article from JoongAng Ilbo reported that Byung-heon Kim, head of the far-right group National Action for the Abolition of the Comfort Women Act, and others are under police investigation.
According to JoongAng Ilbo, Yangsan Police Station in South Gyeongsang Province received a complaint last October and is investigating Byung-heon Kim and three others from the National Action for the Abolition of the Comfort Women Act. They allegedly staged protests by covering various Statues of Peace nationwide with masks labeled 'removal' or draping them with black cloth.
They are being investigated for violating the Assembly and Demonstration Act, property damage, and defamation.
Byung-heon Kim, who was recently questioned as a suspect, reportedly stated that he holds the belief that comfort women were prostitutes. Police are also working to identify and investigate the three other unnamed suspects who appeared with Kim on his YouTube channel.
However, some analysts point out that it remains uncertain whether such acts against the Statue of Peace can be considered defamation against the comfort women victims. Defamation is a crime that must target a specific individual, and actions directed solely at the statue may not meet the legal criteria.
The current Act on Livelihood Stability and Memorial Projects for Victims of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery under Japanese Occupation does not contain provisions for punishing defamation of victims or historical distortion.
y27k@fnnews.com Seo Yoon-kyung Reporter