Kim Byung-heon, head of a group campaigning to scrap South Korea's comfort women law, is under police investigation on suspicion of illegally soliciting donations, while already standing trial on charges of insulting victims of Japanese wartime sexual slavery by calling them prostitutes.
The financial crime investigation unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's regional investigation division summoned Kim as a criminal suspect and began questioning him on the morning of the 26th over alleged violations of the law on the collection and use of donations and the Framework Act on Telecommunications.
Kim is accused of taking donations through a bank account posted on his YouTube channel without completing the required registration process.
Police are examining how Kim collected the money, based on indications that donations exceeded 10 million won in some years, according to sources. Under the donation collection law, anyone raising 10 million won or more must submit a plan for collecting and using the funds to the interior minister or the relevant mayor or provincial governor.
Kim is separately on trial on charges of defaming victims of Japanese military sexual slavery by describing them as prostitutes at the weekly Wednesday rallies held by the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance in 2021 and 2022.
He was indicted and detained in April this year on charges of posting 69 messages disparaging three comfort women victims as "fake victims" and "prostitutes," and of holding an unregistered rally in front of a high school where a statue of a girl symbolizing the victims stands, unfurling a banner that read "Is this career guidance for prostitution?" A court granted him bail on the 23rd of last month, and he is now standing trial without being held in custody.