hankyoreh

Chun Yu-ok, lawmaker from the Grand National Party, has been a Korean news correspondent in Tokyo, a current events commentator and was once the spokesperson for the GNP, appointed by then party chairperson Park Geun-hye.

Until recently, she had aligned herself with Park Geun-hye, who is currently running for the party’s presidential nomination. Now, she has declared her support for Park’s biggest rival within the party, former Seoul mayor Lee Myung-bak.

For years there had been allegations that Chun’s bestselling book, “There Is No Japan,” was largely a stolen manuscript written by a Korean woman whom she had known during her time as a correspondent in Tokyo. In 2005, the online news outlet OhmyNews carried detailed stories alleging that she had in essence plagiarized someone else’s work in her book. Chun sued OhmyNews, its president Oh Yeon-ho and others associated with the series of stories. On July 5, a court ruled against her, saying that the articles did have basis in fact and that the book does appear to have been plagiarized.

Here, Chun is running around with the book “There Is No Japan” in one hand and another titled, “There is No Park Geun-hye: Lee Myung-bak is Our Only Hope,” in the other. Park looks on and asks, “Are you a plagiarist and a traitor?”

(Hankyoreh Geurimpan, 13 July 2007)