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President Yoon Suk-yeol delivers an address to mark March 1 Independence Movement Day at an event held at the Yu Gwan-sun Memorial Hall in Seoul’s Jung District on March 1, 2024. (Yonhap)

A series of figures from what is often called the “new right,” a controversial historical viewpoint that is sympathetic to Japan, are being appointed to key positions at research institutions and veteran organizations by President Yoon Suk-yeol.

Kim Nak-nyeon, a professor emeritus at Dongguk University, was named head of the Academy of Korean Studies at the end of July. Then on Tuesday, Kim Hyoung-suk, director of the Korea History and Future Foundation, was appointed director of the Independence Hall of Korea.

Kim Nak-nyeon is co-author of the controversial book “Anti-Japan Tribalism,” which credits Japan for Korea’s modernization, and Kim Hyoung-suk has been identified as a new right figure by the Heritage of Korean Independence (HKI).

While some think these appointments reflect the narrow pool of candidates available to the Yoon administration, others say they offer a candid view of the administration’s attitude toward Japan, which is also illustrated by its tolerance of Japan’s move to have the Sado mines — where many Koreans performed slave labor during the colonial period — registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Yoon’s pick of Kim Hyoung-suk to head up the Independence Hall of Korea is at the heart of the outcry over Yoon’s recent appointment of figures seen as sympathetic to Japan.

HKI Chairman Lee Jong-chan claimed that the descendants of freedom fighters were eliminated early on in the recruitment of candidates for Independence Hall director, while multiple pro-Japan candidates were allowed to advance in the process.

Lee harshly criticized Yoon’s office in a radio interview on Wednesday. “When appointments are conducted like this, I seem to see the specter of secret agents at work [in the presidential office] at Yongsan, just as during the Japanese colonial period,” he said.

“This is a flat rejection of the reason for Independence Hall’s establishment, not to mention its very existence,” said Kang Yu-jung, the floor spokesperson for the main opposition Democratic Party, referring to Kim’s appointment. In the same briefing, she called for the appointment to be nullified.

In a joint conference, the HKI’s board of directors and chapter heads agreed to “canvass the opinions of [freedom fighters’] descendants and take strong action of various kinds until historical justice has been restored.”

The Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities is planning to hold a rally Saturday at Independence Hall, in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, denouncing Kim’s appointment.

The reason that groups connected with the independence movement are so strongly opposed to Kim’s nomination is because they identify him with the new right, which holds that Japan’s colonial rule of Korea ultimately aided the country’s modernization.

In his book “The History War Must End,” Kim Hyoung-suk argued that the movement to punish Japanese collaborators “committed the error of conflating acts of collaboration with national betrayal without considering the historical merits and demerits of those acts.”

Korea’s presidential office holds that the recent appointments the HKI is taking issue with have nothing to do with attitudes toward history.

“We simply appointed the top candidate recommended by a subcommittee under the Independence Hall board of directors. Yoon has no personal relationship with Kim,” a senior official at the presidential office said in response to the controversy over Kim Hyoung-suk’s appointment.

The same official had no comment to make about the HKI’s demand for Kim’s appointment to be rescinded.

“Kim Hyoung-suk is not part of the new right, as can be seen from his research,” an official with the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs remarked.

But the HKI and other groups regard Kim’s appointment as being linked to Yoon’s attitude toward Japan, which he has made apparent in various ways. Since being inaugurated as president, Yoon has seemed more interested in the future than the past, shelving calls for Japan to show remorse for past actions, including its colonial rule of Korea, and lauding Japan as “a partner with common interests.”

That impression has been reinforced by the fact that many figures with a similar attitude toward Japan have been given appointments throughout government organizations.

For example, Kim Yung-ho, the current unification minister, previously chaired the steering committee of the New Right Think Net, a think tank for new right scholars.

Lee Bae-yong, the chair of the National Education Commission, and Kim Kwang-dong, chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, are two other senior officials with a new right pedigree.

Park Yi-taek, who was appointed to the Independence Hall board of directors back in February, was formerly the director of the Naksungdae Institute of Economic Research, which is known for championing the notion that Korea’s colonization actually aided its modernization.

By Lee Seung-jun, staff reporter; Kwon Hyuk-chul, staff reporter

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