As the U.S. Department of Justice abruptly released documents related to the sex trafficking by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, it emerged that the name of a Korean figure also appears in the materials.
According to the 3 million pages of materials additionally released by the U.S. Department of Justice on the 30th (local time), Epstein mentioned figures from politics and business around the world in emails exchanged with Jes Staley, former Barclays CEO. Among them was reportedly the name of former Minister Yu Myung-hwan.
At the time, Staley was the CEO of JP Morgan's institutional asset sector, and on Oct. 1, 2010, Epstein was found to have forwarded to Staley an email titled "this is nuts." The body of the email, whose sender is unclear, read, "Jeffrey, please come. You can have private time with each one mentioned here. Security clearance has been approved," and attached a list of 14 figures, including former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Nigerian Foreign Minister Henry Odein Ajumogobia.
In particular, the list reportedly featured the name of former Ministry of Foreign Affairs Minister Yu Myung-hwan in the 11th position. Yu was mentioned with the honorific "H.E (His Excellency)," a form of address mainly used for senior government officials. The other names mentioned were also all, at the time, either their countries' foreign ministers or prime ministers.
Earlier, Minister Yu Myung-hwan was appointed Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Feb. 29, 2008, with the launch of the Lee Myung-bak administration. A passer of the 7th foreign service exam in 1973, Yu entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and served as ambassador to Israel and ambassador to the Philippines, and as 1st and 2nd vice ministers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. However, the email was sent just one month after Yu resigned amid allegations of hiring irregularities involving a child.
Meanwhile, the released documents also included emails exchanged between Epstein and Soon-Yi Previn, a Korean American who was the adopted daughter of film director Woody Allen and later became his wife. In emails exchanged in Oct. 2016, Soon-Yi Previn wrote, after donating $15,000 to an orphanage in Osan, Gyeonggi Province, Korea, that "we should put (Epstein) your name, too." Epstein has been accused of supplying minors to a secret organization made up of elite pedophiles.