Foreign Ministry denies reports it failed to assist Korean victim of group assault in Japan

[Financial News] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has strongly rejected claims that a Korean tourist who was assaulted by a group in Japan did not receive proper support from the Korean government.
The ministry also responded point by point to what it said were factual inaccuracies in some media reports.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Consulate General advised the complainant on December 3 last year, the day of the incident, to promptly report the damage and quickly seek legal counsel so that Japanese police could begin an immediate investigation and secure evidence. However, the complainant did not file a report of the damage until December 17, about two weeks later.
The ministry further argued that many parts of the reported accounts do not correspond to the facts.
It stated that the Consulate General never refused to get involved in the case by saying it "could not intervene" and simply referring the complainant to a consular call center, and that it had in fact provided full consular assistance.
The ministry also explained that the complainant never requested interpretation support in connection with a renewed investigation by local police.
On the contrary, the consular officer in charge informed the victim about services such as free consultations with Korean-speaking lawyers, but the victim said a friend would handle the interpretation.
The victim was questioned twice by local police, on December 4 and 17 last year. The ministry said that during a consular meeting on December 3, the day before the first interview, the officer in charge had already informed the victim about free consultation services with Korean-speaking lawyers. However, the victim chose to rely on the friend mentioned in the article for interpretation, and did not raise any complaints about the interpretation immediately after the questioning.
The ministry added that during another consular meeting on December 16, the day before the reinvestigation, the complainant said a local university professor had already been secured as an interpreter and therefore did not ask the Consulate General for interpretation support.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also denied allegations that the Consulate General inflicted secondary harm on the complainant. It said that overseas missions routinely issue safety notices to alert the public to incidents involving Korean nationals and to prevent further harm, and that these notices advise people to exercise caution.
It argued that the safety notice mentioned in the article was posted without any reference to the complainant, because similar incidents in which Koreans were victimized had occurred several times in the area.
The ministry also said it was untrue that the safety notice placed examples of visits to disreputable entertainment establishments side by side with the complainant’s case, stressing that the complainant’s case was not mentioned at all.
The ministry further disputed the article’s claim that "the Ministry of Foreign Affairs keeps repeating the stock answer that it is 'reviewing' the official request for an investigation and has failed to present any practical remedies."
It stated that an "official investigation" by the Japanese authorities has already been under way since the complainant reported the damage, and that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly asked Japan, through its mission there, to conduct a swift and fair investigation.
According to the ministry, its response to the complainant that it would "review" certain requests referred to demands that Japanese police could regard as excessive from their standpoint, which the complainant continued to ask the ministry to convey.

rainman@fnnews.com Reporter Kim Kyung-soo Reporter