Korean Newspaper: Spicy but Suspect

Outspoken criticism of the South Korean government and sensational reports of sex scandals and shady business deals make the Korean Sunday Journal spicy reading for Korean immigrants, who often find free copies of the newspaper in Koreatown restaurants and markets.

Spearing its targets with verbal gusto, the weekly Los Angeles-based Korean-language newspaper titillates many readers, but angers others who fear its power.

Some immigrants view the paper as a key voice exposing misconduct within the Korean community and crying out against wrongs committed by a dictatorial government in their homeland.

The newspaper’s chief critic, the Korean Federation of Los Angeles, has alleged that the Sunday Journal engages in blackmail and sometimes fabricates stories. Other critics go so far as to call it a a disgrace to the Korean community.

The federation--a leading community service organization that is officially neutral on South Korean political issues but which some critics say leans toward the Seoul government--launched a campaign against the newspaper with denunciations of it at a mid-October press conference. The federation then placed advertisements in other Korean-language papers accusing the Sunday Journal of extorting money from businesses by threatening to print unfavorable articles.

“We’ve got to stop this phony newspaper,” said Augustine K. Lee, head of the Korean Federation’s Human Rights Committee, which is seeking to counter the Sunday Journal’s activities. “We’ve got to stop it. The people get hurt so much.”

Denies Accusations

The Sunday Journal’s publisher, Hun Yun, 33, has denied the accusations and counter-charges that the federation’s action is a politically motivated attempt to shut down one of the few Korean-language newspapers in the United States that is totally free of South Korean government influence and willing to speak out strongly with opposition views.

After the federation launched its campaign, Yun also printed personal attacks on federation leaders, accusing one of attempted rape.

It is not the first time the Sunday Journal has been in the news. Last October, a fire broke out in the Sunday Journal offices, destroying them and neighboring offices on the top floor of a building on West 7th Street.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department said recently that investigators never determined the cause of the fire, but have classified it as of “suspicious” origin. Yun, speaking in Korean as one of his reporters translated, said in a recent interview that he believes someone set the fire in an attempt to stop his publishing activities.

The 3-year-old newspaper also has been sued twice.

Korean Airlines sued the Sunday Journal and several co-defendants early this year for alleged extortion, but recently reached an out-of-court settlement without winning any payment from the Sunday Journal, an attorney for the airline said.

Yun was sued for $20 million last year by a Korean businessman living in Los Angeles who claimed he had been libeled in a Sunday Journal article that accused him of financial improprieties, most of them in Korea. Yun ignored the suit, losing a default judgment in the case. However, the businessman has yet to submit evidence of damages to justify a monetary award.

Chang Kyu Kim, who headed the Korean Federation committee that in mid-October was given the task of investigating the Sunday Journal, said later in the month that he could find no evidence that the newspaper committed extortion. He and other federation leaders then argued, and he resigned from his committee chairmanship and the federation board.

All this leaves many in the Korean community uncertain just what to believe.

W. Cho, a car salesman who immigrated to the United States a decade ago and said he regularly reads the Sunday Journal, said that he “cannot say it’s a really responsible newspaper” and that when it carries reports of scandals, he does not know whether they are true or not. But he said the paper’s fearlessness provides an alternative voice that is necessary.

Three Korean-language dailies are printed in Los Angeles, but all are local branches of papers with head offices in South Korea that are subject to government regulation. Many Los Angeles-area critics of the South Korean government feel that only the Sunday Journal and one or two other small weeklies provide significant outlets for opposition views.

‘They Worry . . . ‘

“Someone who did something real bad--they worry about this newspaper,” Cho said. “One side--the government--has a lot of power. They can do anything they want. . . . We can read only the government side in the daily papers.”

The vice president of the Korean Federation, Woo-chul Lee, 47, said that reading the Sunday Journal can be a unique and interesting experience--which is part of the problem as seen by the federation.

Many immigrants “never read this kind of story before,” he said. “That’s why this paper is very popular.”

When the Sunday Journal writes about scandals concerning well-known Koreans, “most people think that’s very interesting, because that’s not directly involved in their life,” he said. “That’s someone else’s story.”

Woo-chul Lee claims that Yun sometimes learns of genuine misconduct and sometimes fabricates stories, but that, either way, the threat of printing unfavorable reports is used to force businesses to buy advertisements or otherwise make payments to the paper.

‘Afraid to Stand Up’

“This gentleman, he doesn’t have a gun,” he said. “He only has a pencil. But he gets $1,000, or $10,000. Most people pay to him. They are afraid to stand up.

“He’s very powerful now. No one personally can stand up to him. . . . They cannot even take it to a court. A businessman doesn’t want to take time going back and forth to the court.”

Yun denies fabricating stories or engaging in extortion, but he printed accusations in his newspaper that a former employee had extorted businesses. In an interview with The Times, the ex-worker denied the charge.

Woo-chul Lee also charged that the Sunday Journal makes a practice of first printing advertisements and then demanding payment for them. He said that last month, the federation conducted a survey of businesses with advertisements in the Sunday Journal’s Oct. 13 issue and found that about 65% said the advertisements were run without their request or permission.

Yun said he sometimes places free ads for businesses that have previously advertised in his paper, but he said he never seeks payment for such ads.

He charged that the federation, at the urging of South Korean government officials, is trying to intimidate his advertisers. The federation, he said, has told businessmen that if they advertise in his paper, they are assisting his activities and therefore opposing the South Korean government. Advertisers are being frightened into believing that the South Korean government may deny them permission to return to home for visits or may otherwise cause difficulties for them, their families or their businesses, he charged.

“I think it’s going to be a great blow, and it will influence our financial situation greatly,” Yun said.

Yun said the paper typically runs 44 pages, with about 8,000 copies printed weekly. Revenues do not quite cover costs, he said, but the shortfall is made up from the profits of a San Pedro grocery store that he and his wife own. Greater financial difficulties would not prevent him from publishing, he added.

“There is no way they can stop me,” Yun said. “Even if I have to print just one page, I’ll do it.”

Augustine Lee said the federation has no plans to file a lawsuit against Yun or his newspaper, but that at least one individual intends to file suit and the federation is prepared to assist in that effort.