Category: Korea-General Topics

If the Moon administration allows the auctioning of the assets of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in South Korea, I wonder what the Japanese response will be? Would they try and auction off the assets of a major Korean company like Hyundai in Japan in response? If so this dispute could get even uglier:

Plaintiffs who won a compensation suit against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for its wartime forced labor filed a formal request to a local court Tuesday to seize and liquidate the Japanese firm’s assets in Korea, after the company refused to abide by a November Supreme Court ruling in their favor.

The request came amid an escalating feud between the two countries following the court verdict and Japan’s alleged retaliatory move restricting exports of key materials to Korea. 

The action comes eight months after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling, which sided with 87-year-old Yang Geum-deok and four other plaintiffs who were forced to work without pay at a Mitsubishi aircraft plant in Nagoya during World War II. The court ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to pay between 100 million won ($85,000) and 150 million won to each victim in legal compensation. 

But the company refused to pay, and also ignored multiple requests to negotiate an agreement, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers. During this time, three plaintiffs passed away. 

“There is a limit to waiting,” civic groups that supported the five said in a press conference on behalf of the plaintiffs, Tuesday. “As we warned, we have asked the court to order the sale of Mitsubishi Heavy Industry’s assets in Korea.” 

The request was filed with Daejeon District Court, targeting the “liquidation of six patents and two trademark rights” which the company was granted in Korea, including its new MHI English logo. Earlier in March, they asked a court to allow them to “seize the intellectual properties,” a request that was accepted. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

#MoonJaeIn's Deobureo Minjoo Party (Democratic Party of #Korea) created a "Special Committee to Respond to #Japan's Economic Retaliation," then quickly renamed it "Special Committee to Respond to Japan's Economic Invasion." An invasion? Ruling party stoking anti-Japan sentiment. https://t.co/fWfdY8jByO

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) July 23, 2019

The Japanese government is looking for every opportunity now to stick it to the Moon administration:

Anchor: Amid Seoul and Tokyo’s ongoing trade spat over the Abe administration’s export curbs, tensions between the neighboring countries have been further exacerbated after Tokyo renewed its claim over South Korea’s Dokdo islets in the East Sea. South Korea dismissed Japan’s renewed territorial claim over the Dokdo islets, reiterating that the islets are Korean territory historically, geographically and by international law.

Kim Bum-soo has more. 

Report: As a Russian warplane violated South Korean airspace above the easternmost Dokdo islets Tuesday, Tokyo used the opportunity to renew its claim over the East Sea territory.

[Sound bite: Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga (Japanese)] 

“Regarding the airspace invasion by the Russian military aircraft yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the Japanese Embassy in Russia, strongly objected the violation and at the same time urged efforts to prevent a recurrence. The government will solve the territorial issue, raise a peace treaty and continue to work persistently under this basic policy.”

Tokyo’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga also said Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force scrambled fighter jets in response.

Seoul, however, finds Tokyo’s response to be preposterous. South Korea’s presidential office refuted Japan’s claim on Wednesday, saying it should confine its concerns to its own air defense identification zone while South Korea responds to matters in its own airspace. The foreign and defense ministries in Seoul also issued statements.

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link, but it seems it would have been better for Japan to keep quiet on this. The Dokdo issue is one thing that 99% of Koreans seem to agree and Japan’s comments are just causing Koreans to rally around President Moon.

Once again when are so called patriotic Koreans going to pull a stunt like this at the Chinese embassy to protest their current economic retaliation against South Korea and historical wrong doing against the Korean people?:

Police detained six college students Monday after they staged a demonstration inside the Japanese Consulate in the southeastern port city of Busan in protest of Japan’s trade restrictions on Korea. 

The students were in the consulate’s library, then stormed out to its yard at around 2:30 p.m. They shouted slogans and held banners that read, “We denounce Japan’s re-invasion,” “We condemn economic provocations,” and “Abe must apologize.” 

They were taken to a police station and are being probed on the account of trespassing the premises of a diplomatic mission, the police said. 

The students, who claim to belong to an anti-Japan group based in Busan, individually entered the consulate building earlier through due procedures, according to the police.

At the time of their protest, a coalition of 30 civic groups in the city was holding a joint news conference in front of the consulate’s rear gate to condemn Japan for its export restrictions against South Korea and call for a boycott of Japanese products.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but when are these protesters going to demand the Emperor President Xi of China apologize?

Anyway these activists pull these stunts against Japan because they know they can get away with it. If they tried this against the Chinese embassy they know there would likely be real repercussions. Remember the Chinese embassy once sponsored the assault of Korean citizens in Seoul and got away with it.  

Could you imagine what would happen if the Japanese embassy organized a mob to assault Koreans in Seoul?

Here is the testy exchange between the ROK and Japanese foreign ministries:

Kono urged Seoul to immediately take action to stop the court process, under which the plaintiffs of the lawsuit are preparing to seize assets of the Japanese companies, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industry.

Nam defended his government and mentioned Seoul’s proposal of creating a joint fund as a way to settle the dispute. Kono raised his voice, saying Tokyo had already rejected the idea. He also criticized the ambassador for being “rude” to suggest it again.

Japan says all compensation issues had been settled under the 1965 bilateral agreement and that the South Korean government’s lack of intervention to stop the court process is a breach of the international treaty.

Tokyo is considering taking the issue to the International Court of Justice, although some officials say South Korea is expected to refuse going to court. Tokyo may seek damages from South Korea in case assets of Japanese companies are seized, Japanese media reported.

Responding to Kono’s remark, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Japan still hasn’t done enough to make amends for the sufferings South Koreans had gone through during the colonial past and that it should discuss ways to find solutions acceptable to both sides.

“To genuinely resolve the problem, Japan must look straight into the unfortunate past and make efforts to heal the pain and scars of the victims,” the ministry said. “We hope that the Japanese government would withdraw its unilateral pressure including the export restrictions of retaliatory character and return to the stage of diplomatic resolutions.”

Associated Press

All I am wondering is, when is the ROK government going to say that China hasn’t made amends for the suffering of the Korean people during the Korean War that killed far more Koreans than the Japanese colonial occupation and nearly destroyed the entire country?

Also when is the ROK government going to demand that China withdraw their retaliatory economic measures against South Korea over the THAAD deployment? The hypocrisy is why I have a hard time taking Moon administration demands on this issue seriously.

So when is a journalist ever going to ask these people boycotting Japanese products why they are not boycotting Chinese products? China has a longer history of trade retaliation against Korea over the THAAD dispute:

As soon as supermarket manager Cho Min-hyuk got to work the day after Tokyo imposed curbs on exports to South Korea, he pulled all Japanese products off the shelves.

It was Cho’s way of taking a stand against Japan in a quickly worsening political and economic dispute between the two east Asian neighbors. 

Such anger has prompted a widespread boycott of Japanese products and services, from beer to clothes and travel, disrupting businesses in what was already the worst economic climate for South Korea in a decade. 

Cho, who manages a 1,500 square meter Purunemart supermarket in Seoul, is taking the hit voluntarily. Over 200 other supermarkets and grocery stores are doing the same, according to Korea Mart Association, a trade group representing them. (…..)

The country’s top two convenience stores CU and GS25, run by BGF Retail (282330.KS) and GS Retail (007070.KS), told Reuters sales of Japanese beer plunged 21.5% and 24.2%, respectively, in the first two weeks of July from the previous two-week period. E-Mart (139480.KS) reported a 24.6% fall.

Reuters

You can read more at the link.

I would not be surprised if this man had a history of mental problems:

A 78-year-old South Korean man died hours after setting himself ablaze near the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Friday, police said, at a time of worsening tensions between Seoul and Tokyo.

The man, surnamed Kim, ignited a fire inside his car parked in front of the building where the Embassy is located. The man died later Friday while being treated at a Seoul hospital, police said.

Police said Kim had phoned an acquaintance earlier to say he planned to self-immolate to express his antipathy toward Japan.

Kim’s family told investigators that his father-in-law had been conscripted as a forced laborer when the Korean Peninsula was under Japan’s colonial rule from 1910-45, according to a police statement.

Associated Press

Of course the news media did not bother to fact check if he was in fact a force laborer. Simple math puts this highly in doubt. The article says he is 78 years old, which means that in 1945 when most of the forced labor happened he would have been 4 years old.

It looks like it will be a wet weekend for the Korean peninsula:

Typhoon Danas is moving toward the Korean Peninsula after forming off the Philippines. 

The storm ― classified as “small,” with central pressure of 996 hectopascals (hPa) ― is moving northeast at a speed of 23 kilometers an hour. 

Danas ― packing maximum sustained winds of 54 kph and gusts of 82.8 kph as of Tuesday ― is expected to slam into Taiwan on Thursday, advance to Shanghai on Saturday and reach the West Sea on Sunday, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). 

Taiwan authorities have warned people in central, southern and eastern areas to brace for torrential rain. 

If it travels as expected, the entire Korean Peninsula will be under the typhoon’s influence this weekend. 

Korea Times

Just another example of what happens when tax rates get too high, the tax payers begin to leave:

Wealthy Koreans are migrating in increasing numbers to other countries because of the unstable economy and high tax rates at home. 

Countries like the United States and Singapore are especially popular as immigration destinations because of their stable economies, lower tax rates and good education.

A wide range of people, from families with children to people in their 70s, were paying close attention to a seminar on investor immigration visas for the United States at the JW Marriott in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on June 15.

The attendees had their eyes on the Immigrant Investor Program, where people would invest around $500,000 to create jobs in the United States and receive an EB-5 visa in return. To qualify for the visa, people will need to make an investment in a commercial enterprise in the United States and plan to create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services administer the EB-5 Program. When issued an EB-5 visa through the program, entrepreneurs, their spouses as well as unmarried children under 21 are eligible to apply for a green card, which grants them permanent residence in the United States.

The number of Koreans issued an EB-5 visa in 2018 was 531, according to the U.S. Department of State. That is an increase of 336 people compared to 2017. Korea is in fourth place, following China, Vietnam and India, by the number of people receiving visas through the Immigrant Investor Program.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but this is what legal immigration looks like that Americans should support.

LOL! Seoul City recently placed 80 (130 says JTBC) massive tree pots in Seoul's Gwanghwamun to block Park Geun-hye lovers from installing "release her from jail" tents.

Today: PGH lovers install tents in Gwanghwamun spots "where there were no trees".

🤣🤦‍♂️https://t.co/E2iZQQ5DL9 pic.twitter.com/cvSRBFE0Yk

— Raphael Rashid (@koryodynasty) July 6, 2019