Young Poong接受韩国非铁金属协会道歉，并再次要求Korea Zinc就施压事件道歉

Young Poong (000670) has accepted the official apology from the Korea Nonferrous Metal Association, which had issued a statement distorting the company's press release, and once again demanded an apology from Korea Zinc (010130), which is known to have triggered the incident.
According to Young Poong on the 7th, an executive of the Nonferrous Metal Association visited the company's headquarters in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the 6th to express an apology over the series of events. This came about two weeks after Kim Hong-kook, the association's standing vice chairman, abruptly changed his stance on the 24th of last month by demanding the withdrawal of Young Poong's press release, which contained the fact of his visit to the company's Seokpo smelter.
The visit by association executives to the Young Poong Seokpo smelter was pursued through a preparation period beginning in June, based on an agreement between the two sides. At the time, Young Poong introduced the association executives to its main smelting processes and eco-friendly infrastructure, including the world's first zero liquid discharge (ZLD) system at a smelter.
In particular, Young Poong claimed that ahead of distributing the press release, it shared a draft with the association and provided sufficient time for review, and that it distributed the release normally after going through consultations on the content and schedule and confirming there were no objections. However, on the evening of the day the press release was distributed, Vice Chairman Kim demanded that Young Poong withdraw the press release and delete or revise the articles.
Young Poong pointed to continuous protests and pressure from Korea Zinc's top management as the background to this. According to Young Poong, Korea Zinc protested to the association with the intent of holding it responsible and raised the possibility of withdrawing from the association, and later a senior executive directly summoned an association official to lodge a protest.
Ultimately, on the 28th of last month, the association posted a statement on its website that could distort the intent of Young Poong's press release. When Young Poong demanded the removal of the statement, which damaged its reputation, the association took down the statement the next day, the 29th, and then apologized the previous day.
Young Poong criticized that although there had been an apology at the association level, the essential responsibility for the incident lies with Korea Zinc's top management, which exerted undue pressure on the association. The company defined the actions of Korea Zinc's management — pressuring the association's executives and demanding the withdrawal of a press release conducted through normal consultations, the revision of articles, and the posting of a statement — as clear "abuse of power to privatize the association."
Young Poong said, "The act of a particular company using its industry influence to undermine the independence and autonomy of the association can never be tolerated," adding, "It must issue an official apology before the industry, member companies, and the public over the undue external pressure and attempt to privatize the association, and take responsible measures to prevent recurrence."