This may end of backfiring on the Moon administration:
Robert Gallucci, head of the USKI
The U.S.-Korea Institute (USKI) stated it will close next month due to a cut in funding from the South Korean government, media outlets reported Tuesday.
The USKI is a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, affiliated with the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. It runs the website 38 North specializing in North Korea affairs.
The USKI received 2.1 billion won ($1.87 million) in annual funding from the government, through the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) affiliated with the Prime Minister’s Office.
This is about 60 percent of its total budget, according to a KIEP official. The USKI also receives funding from Johns Hopkins University, she said.
According to AP, USKI Chairman Robert Gallucci said the think tank will close in May, after rejecting “utterly inappropriate meddling” in its academic affairs.
Earlier, the government stated it would stop funding the institute starting in June, citing problems with transparency in accounting and selecting visiting scholars and interns.
The USKI claimed there had been pressure from Cheong Wa Dae to oust the institute’s director Jae H. Ku, due to his conservative inclinations that were out of line with the liberal Moon Jae-in administration. Ku has headed the think tank since 2007. [Korea Times]
The silencing of the US-Korea Institute I think may backfire because they have been largely friendly to the Moon administration’s policies. Now that the organization is no longer funded by the Korean government their may be more of a willingness to take on the Moon administration. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Ku, who has led USKI for the last 11 years, said that the government’s attempt to compare the USKI to the Korea Economic Institute (KEI) in budget reporting is not valid. The KEI is another Washington D.C.-based institute that receives funding from KIEP.
“This is a faulty comparison, as the KEI is a registered foreign agent under KIEP’s control while the USKI is not,” he said.
“But this lies at the heart of the matter at hand _ the recent attempt to make the USKI structurally like the KEI, with KIEP having rights over personnel and operational decisions.”
The USKI has claimed that the government, through the KIEP, pressured the SAIS to fire Ku and Assistant Director Jenny Town, and to agree to a set of operational rules that would give them control over management of the USKI.
Don’t bite the hand that feeds you pretty much tells it all here.
Better to go down with principles intact than being a Moon stooge.
If you can’t jail them fire them and the leftist Moon continues to move forward.
Here is some more background on this issue:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2018/04/120_247217.html