Hardline conservative group figures accused of insulting victims by saying "the Japanese military comfort women were voluntary prostitutes" were sent back to prosecutors four years after the complaint was filed.
On the 17th, the Jongno Police Station in Seoul said that at the end of last month it referred 10 people, including Kim Byung-heon, head of Abolish the Comfort Women Act National Action, Joo Ok-soon, head of Mom Squad, and Kim Sang-jin, head of New Freedom Solidarity, to prosecutors on charges of defamation and insult.
They are accused of claiming "Jeonguiyeon are scammers" and "comfort women were voluntary prostitutes," or of disrupting the Wednesday rally with loudspeakers.
Earlier, the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance said in March 2022 that "false information was repeatedly spread and the rally was obstructed at the Wednesday rally site," and filed a complaint with police.
But the investigation dragged on for nearly four years amid back-and-forth between prosecutors and police. After prosecutors requested a reinvestigation of the police's decision not to refer the case in September 2023, the probe resumed, and in 2024 and 2025 police twice made partial referral decisions, but prosecutors demanded supplemental investigations.
A police official said, "Time was required in the process of reassessing whether each remark constituted defamation or insult."