Author: GIKorea

Here is the latest on the Moon administration’s growing “blacklist” scandal:

The opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) urged the Blue House on Thursday to respond to suspicions that it compiled a blacklist of executives at public organizations affiliated with the Environment Ministry early this year, the latest in two weeks of revelations about illegal surveillance by President Moon Jae-in and his top aides. 

The LKP initially raised the blacklist allegation on Wednesday in a press briefing, while revealing to local reporters a document leaked by an anonymous former member of the Blue House special inspection bureau. The member claimed that his team specifically ordered the Environment Ministry to draft the report, which the ministry submitted last January. (………)

On Wednesday, the LKP revealed to reporters a document that was roughly entitled, “The trend of resignation of executives at organizations affiliated with the Environment Ministry.” Below that was a subtitle that read, “The status of resignation of executives at eight public organizations under the Environment Ministry.” A short summary of the report explicitly stated that “resignation procedures were proceeding without any particular disturbance or backlash except in the Korea Environment Corporation.” 

A total of 24 executives of those eight organizations were listed in the report, profiling their affiliation, job rank, name, term and “status quo.” Among those figures, 14 were said to have submitted resignations and three were said to have been planning to.

Former LKP Rep. Kim Yong-nam, who is a member of a committee within the conservative party looking into the whistle-blowing scandal, said during Wednesday’s press conference that the former Blue House special inspection bureau member who provided the document said he personally received the report around Jan. 15 from a high-ranking official in the Environment Ministry. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

This environmental blacklist reminds me some what of what the Moon administration did to consolidate control over public media broadcasters. They pressured executives to resign by having union thugs harass and threaten them. Once the executives resigned they were replaced by the Moon administration with left wing advocates.

In this case it appears they pressured government employees within the Environmental Ministry to resign in order to put in place employees that shared left wing values.

What is driving the criticism of the blacklist is that the Moon administration put the Chief of Staff of the prior Park administration Kim Ki-choon in jail for three years for running a so called “cultural blacklist” that prevented left wing affiliated artists from getting government funding. What he did is arguably not as bad as what is alleged here where people were actually forced out of their jobs.

South Korea paid ~$860 million this year for USFK cost sharing. South Korean negotiators have been trying to keep cost sharing increases below the $1 billion level. The Trump administration however, wants the ROK to pay $1.2 billion instead:

But an even bigger concern is that Washington and Seoul have failed to agree on dividing the cost of keeping U.S. troops here despite 10 rounds of talks so far. The Trump administration wants to double the South Korean share, but this year South Korea already paid W960.2 billion or half of the total upkeep cost (US$1=W1,126). Trump’s demand in short comes down to asking Seoul to pay for pretty much the entire upkeep. The Wall Street Journal said Trump’s negotiators asked for a 50-percent hike or US$1.2 billion. That is a huge increase considering the fact that Seoul’s share has grown only by 2.5 to 25.7 percent each year since 1991. 
South Korean officials are reluctant to talk about the issue, which is extremely sensitive in the domestic political situation, while U.S. officials are merely saying there are “very big differences” between the two sides. There is a possibility of Trump threatening to pull U.S. troops out in order to pressure Seoul to pay more. He has been treating most diplomatic alliances from the perspective of whether they support the U.S. rather than in the traditional way of spreading the Pax Americana around the globe. 
There is no telling what Trump will do to get South Korea to pay more, nor how Seoul will react — it could end up telling the Americans to leave or stoke anti-U.S. sentiment.

Chosun Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but considering the access to advanced technology and training that the ROK receives from USFK, asking for $1.2 billion a year is a reasonable request in my opinion.

Just another example of the hypocrisy from North Korea. The only reason the Japanese are going all in on missile defense is because the threat from the Kim regime. Just last year the North Koreans fired a missile over Japan:

North Korea’s state media on Saturday criticized Japan for conducting a test of a new missile interceptor system, which is being co-funded by the United States and Japan, arguing that the move could chill the “peace atmosphere” on the Korean Peninsula. 
The U.S. and Japan have jointly developed the SM-3 Block IIA interceptor, and they successfully conducted a test of the new interceptor in Hawaii earlier this month.
In an English-language commentary, the North’s Korean Central News Agency said, “Japan’s incitement of the bellicose atmosphere is a serious act of harassing peace to chill the peace atmosphere on the Korean peninsula and the region and strain the situation.” 
“It is the revelation of the crafty trick of the Japanese reactionaries to further ratchet up the tension on the Korean peninsula and meet their own interests,” the commentary said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I saw this image at naver cafe.
It was taken in South Korea. But I think – South Korean did not make this.
It is an reasonable doubt.
Because South Korean start studying English in elementary school.
Who made it, he or she is not South Korean or not study in South Korea. pic.twitter.com/sYGkiNpiMY

— hr chang (@chang_hr) December 25, 2018

This had to be a pretty gruesome death. Condolences to his friends and family:

A Russian worker died after being sucked into an auto parts-making machine, police said Thursday.

The accident happened at a factory in Yesan County, South Chungcheong Province, at 5:13 p.m. Wednesday. 

The victim was Russian with ethnic roots in Korea and was registered on the factory’s regular payroll. 

An investigation is under way to determine the accident’s cause. 

Korea Times

It only took nearly 15 years, but it appears the local Korean government in Paju has figured out what to finally do with old Camp Howze:

This week, Paju City announced plans to renovate six buildings at the old base to create something it calls “Flat Village” by June 2021, the Hankyoreh Shinmun reported Wednesday.
The $18.3 million project, which includes parking for 550 vehicles, will turn the former base gymnasium into a performance hall and a supply shop into a museum and gallery, a Paju City official said Thursday.
Officers’ quarters will be converted to a guest house, a dining facility will become a community center and a headquarters building will transform into an artist’s residence, the official said.
People living near Howze made great sacrifices as a consequence of the Korean War, Paju Mayor Choi Jong-hwan said, according to the newspaper report.
The project will create jobs and boost locals’ incomes, he said, adding that the base would be “reborn as a place of reconciliation, healing and peace.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the prisons in South Korea will soon be staffed with Jehovah’s Witnesses and other religions that forbid military service:

Able-bodied men who refuse to serve in the military for religious reasons will be subject to three years of alternative duty at correctional facilities, the Ministry of Defense said Friday.

In its draft guideline for revision of the conscription law, the ministry also said alternative duty will become possible in January 2020.

The move comes after the Supreme Court’s ruling in June that religious faith is a valid reason to refuse military service and the law should be amended accordingly. 

The decision triggered a dispute over where, and for how long, the conscientious objectors should serve their alternative duty, so other conscripts, many of them serving the country under harsh conditions, do not feel left out emotionally.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

NK didn’t pursue nukes to achieve deterrence; it used its deterrence to pursue nukes. Nukes as purely defensive is nonsense, as is the Libya canard NK throws out and the West holds tightly like a security blanket to rationalize NK’s nuclear ambition. NK’s intentions are coercive. https://t.co/6iwYbfZflR

— Edward Oh 🇺🇸 (@EdwardHBOh) December 22, 2018