Farmers, activists to rally against illegal rice subsidy grab

By Kim Boram
SEOUL, Oct. 17 (Yonhap) -- Farmers and civic activists will take to the streets
of central Seoul on Friday in protest of the lawmakers and government officials
who allegedly pilfered state rice farming subsidies, organizers said.
The mushrooming scandal, initially sparked by a media report that the current
vice health minister had received subsidies intended for low-income rice farmers,
has grown into an explosive corruption investigation involving thousands of
public servants and two ruling Grand National Party lawmakers, Kim Hak-yong and
Kim Sung-hoi.
Prosecutors on Thursday launched an investigation against disgraced Vice Health
Minister Lee Bong-hwa after a minor opposition party filed a complaint accusing
her of fraud and other charges.
Facing the opening of the Korean rice market to cheaper imports, then President
Roh Moo-hyun established the subsidy system in 2005 to give money to farmers who
actually produce rice.
But at least 500 billion won (US$384 million) in government subsidies aimed at
supporting farmers is believed to have gone to tens of thousands of ineligible
recipients over the past four years.
"The two politicians should take legal and political responsibility, as they
apparently violated the law and caused substantial harm to farmers and Korean
taxpayers," Jinbo Corea, a Seoul-based progressive civic organization, said in a
statement. The group plans to submit a complaint to prosecutors to open an
investigation into the two lawmakers and hold a protest rally in front of the
headquarters of their party later in the day.
A group of farmers has planned to march on the streets leading to the Seoul
government complex in Gwanghwamun, carrying rice packs on their back in protest.
The protesters have urged the government to reveal the names of all the officials
and politicians who illegally received subsidies and dismiss them immediately.
"The government should come up with stricter farming policies that forbid urban
residents from possessing farmland and acquiring the subsidies," Junnong, a
leading farmers' organization, said in a statement.