President Park Geun-hye's younger sister Park Geun-ryeong's remarks over Korea’s history is causing controversy in the nation. She said Korea should no longer ask an apology from Japan for its history.
Her remarks came during a recent interview with a Japanese video-sharing website Niconico, which will be released on the website on Aug.4. During the interview, Park said, "(Japan) including the Japanese emperor already made apologies to South Korea four times and it is wrong to ask continually."
"(For the sex slaves), we can afford to take care of them," she added.
For the shrine worship by Japanese politicians, "It is interference in domestic affairs. If we do not visit the grave because they are bad, that is sin against heaven," she also said.
After one local media reported her remarks, it caused heated controversy in the nation.
The main opposition party New Politics Alliance for Democracy is strongly accusing her remarks, pointing it as "thoughtless words."
Park Soo-hyun, a spokesperson of the party said during the briefing session, "We doubt whether it is possible for president's sister to have such view of history in a nation where countless people were sacrificed under Japanese imperial rule."
"Even while Kono Yohei said (Japan) should admit the fact and make an apology, it is impossible for the president's sister sides with the Japanese blind act," he said. Kono is well known as a controversial figure within the comfort women debate, for the official statement he made in 1993 Asia relations with China and Korea former leader.
Park Ji-won, a lawmaker of New Politics Alliance for Democracy, also tweeted, that "Park's remarks related to the Japan is thoughtless words as a sister of president and a citizen of Korean."
The Blue House says that her remarks have nothing to do with the government, saying that, "There is nothing we can say about her remarks."
On the day Park's remarks caused controversy, president Park Geun-hye posted her vacation news on her Facebook account, introducing a warm letter from a Chinese young man, and did not respond to any of her sister’s remarks.
Even the ruling party Saenuri Party kept its distance from Park's remarks, saying that is just her unexpected behavior.
Chung Byung-kuk, a lawmaker of Saenuri Party said, "We do not agree with her words and it is just a happening," adding that, "Being simply a family member of president doesn't mean that it affects the president."
However, industry watchers say that her remarks will surely affect president’s government administration down the road because her family member's historical perception may continually come up.
Worse still, president's approval rating saw a drop, according to the latest survey done by a research firm Realmeter. Especially, Park’s big fan base - people aged over 60 - who fully supported her seems to move away from her. 81.6 percent of the people supported Park even last year when the public turned their back because the Sewol tragedy. However, this time, the approval ratings from them significantly dropped to 69.8 percent.
Her regional fan base is also declining. Traditionally, Park has been supported by Busan and the southeast of South Korea but the ratings saw drop to 42.2 percent from 56.3 percent last year. In Kangwon and Jeju Island, the ratings dropped to 37.2 percent from 60.1 percent.
"The reason why her strong supporters are turning their back from her shows the harshness of the public's assessment on her government administration," said Yoon Hee-woong, chief of poll analysis at research firm Opinion Live.
