President Moon’s Chief of Staff Once Collected Royalties for North Korean Regime

It has long been known by Korea watchers that President Moon Jae-in’s Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok has prolific communist and pro-North Korean past.  Over at One Free Korea, Dr. Tara O has a guest post that provides detailed background information that shows how immersed Im was in communist ideology before entering the Blue House.  What I found really interesting was how during the Roo Moo-hyun administration Im founded a group that collected royalties for the Kim regime in North Korea:

In 2005, Im Jong-seok founded and led as chairman, the South-North Economic and Cultural Cooperation Foundation (남북경제문화협력재단). The Foundation has been collecting royalties from MBC, KBS, SBS, and other TV and online broadcasters for North Korean TV footage. According to the Ministry of Unification, the foundation collected an estimated $1,876,700 over 13 years and transferred the royalties to North Korea until the Cheonan sinking in 2010. It is still collecting royalties on behalf of North Korea’s Chosun Central Broadcasting Commission, with the plans to transfer the money once the sanctions are lifted. The foundation even called the Ministry of Defense Public Affairs and demanded royalties for using the missile test footage in July 2017. North Korea does not pay for footage from South Korean broadcasts.

The foundation also has other revenue streams. One is membership and the other is education & research. It collects about 32,700,000 Won (~$30,000) on average for its annual membership. It also became a contractor to the Seoul City and Seongdong District governments, developing South-North “peace education” programs. What is interesting is that the contract with Seoul City was signed on the same day as when Park Won-soon, Seoul City Mayor, appointed Im Jong-seok as the Deputy Mayor on June 11, 2014. Im was the campaign manager for Park prior to that in 2014, and successfully led to Park Won-soon’s re-election.  [One Free Korea]

You can read much more at the link where Dr. O in painstaking detail lists all of Im Jong-seok’s communist and pro-North Korean ties.  Does anyone think that Im Jong-seok who less than a decade ago was collecting royalties to send to the Kim regime is interested in being an honest broker now between the US and North Korea?