Here is an inner left wing fight over who should be able to appoint the chief of the Industrial Bank of Korea, the Blue House or the labor unions:
Protests outside the state-run Industrial Bank of Korea are expected to intensify, with the union’s fight against the top-down appointment of CEO Yoon Jong-won gaining support from powerful national labor associations in recent weeks.
The Federation of Korean Trade Unions, one of the two largest umbrella labor organizations here, announced Wednesday that it was joining the IBK unionists in protesting what they see as excessive government meddling in the organization’s personnel affairs.
The new leader of the FKTU, Kim Dong-myung, visited the IBK headquarters in central Seoul to announce the organization’s participation and vowed to continue until the workers’ demands were met. The FKTU had around 930,000 members as of the end of 2018, according to data published by the Ministry of Employment and Labor in December.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which has a membership of more than 960,000, announced it was joining the fight earlier this month.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link.
Here is the most obvious analysis of the day:
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Friday that North Korea is “clearly” trying to build a nuclear-tipped long-range missile as Washington continues to pursue denuclearization talks with the regime.
Esper made the comment when asked to assess the extent of the threat posed by the “new strategic weapon” North Korea has threatened to unveil amid stalled denuclearization talks with the U.S.
“They have an aggressive R&D program and a test program, to say the least,” the Pentagon chief said during a seminar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “We’re conscious of what they’re trying to do. Clearly, they are trying to build a long-range ballistic missile with the ability to carry a nuclear warhead, if you will, on top of it. So it’s something we are watching very closely.”
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
This is just another example of how South Korea is a rule by law country instead of a rule of law country:
Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae expressed intent on Thursday to order an internal probe into prosecutors that brought charges against a presidential secretary for suspected misconduct, calling it a rash move that did not follow due process.
Choo delivered her message to the press after an anti-corruption team at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office earlier in the day indicted Choi Kang-wook, a presidential secretary for public office discipline, for fabricating an internship certificate for former Justice Minister Cho Kuk’s son.
The prosecution team reportedly bypassed its boss, Lee Seong-yun, head of the Seoul prosecution office, as he refused to sign off on the indictment, and went ahead with filing the charges with the approval of Prosecutor-General Yoon Seok-youl.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
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