Category: Korea-General Topics

Another example of how the defamation laws in South Korea are used to silence political opposition:

A conservative commentator has been arrested on libel charges regarding his claim that media reports that led to the ouster of former President Park Geun-hye were manipulated.

The Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for Byun Hee-jae, citing a risk of the suspect destroying evidence.

Byun is accused of spreading false information through his book “The Curse of Sohn Suk-hee” and his online articles, arguing that local cable channel JTBC manipulated the content of a tablet PC and made it look like it was used by Choi Soon-sil, a long-time confidante of the former president.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office filed for the warrant last Friday, accusing Byun of slandering JTBC, its president Sohn Suk-hee and its reporters without reasonable grounds.

The tablet PC was used as critical evidence proving that Choi had interfered in state affairs, leading to Park’s impeachment last year.  [KBS World News]

For those that don’t remember the tablet was mysteriously found in an office once rented by Park Geun-hye’s friend Choi Soon-shil who was at the center of the scandal.  The finding of the tablet PC was the key news that created the momentum to impeach former President Park Geun-hye.

JTBC only admitted where it found the tablet after changing its story multiple times about the origin of the tablet.  If it was in fact found in the old office I always found it interesting how it was conveniently left with such sensitive information on it and no password protection.  Additionally the Korean courts did not consider the tablet as evidence during the trial against President Park because it was tampered with.

Just another example of something I can point to the next time someone tries to tell me that South Korea is a conservative Confucian country:

South Korea held its first ever drag parade this weekend, a small but significant step for rights activists in a country that remains deeply conservative when it comes to gender and sexuality.

Dozens of drag queens and kings marched through Itaewon on Saturday, a suburb of Seoul best known for its nightlife and a nascent but vibrant gay scene.

Carrying rainbow flags, they cheered and strutted their best outfits, receiving shouts of support and the odd baffled look from those they passed.

While homosexuality is not illegal in South Korea, same-sex marriage is not recognised and people cannot legally change their birth gender.

The country is home to a large evangelical Christian community and LGBT people feel pervasive pressure to stay closeted.

“When it comes to South Korea, human rights guarantees for sexual minorities are insufficient,” Yang Heezy, a drag queen and the organiser of Seoul Drag Parade, said.

“Today’s drag parade and more queer culture festivals should take place to bring attention to sexual minorities and help those who are not from those minorities learn more,” he added, sporting a flame red wig and floral dress.  [South China Morning Post]

You can read more at the link.

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Does this issue in South Korea sound familiar to Americans?:

Doctors staged a massive rally in Seoul on Sunday in protest against what they call the government’s “unilateral” medical care policy.

Around 7,000 members from the Korean Medical Association gathered in central Seoul to voice their anger at so-called Moon Jae-in Care, which the government says is focused on providing comprehensive medical services to the general public at reasonable prices.

The participants shouted out slogans such as “Let’s banish Moon Jae-in Care” and “The government has come up with a delusional policy.”

Many in the medical profession have been opposed to the plan costing 30.6 trillion won ($27.9 billion) that will be implemented in stages up to 2022. The government is aiming to greatly expand National Health Insurance coverage for most medical treatment, which includes various medical procedures and tests.

“We have set up a committee with the government to discuss the issue but we will immediately halt all talks and put up a strong fight, as discussions are void of truth with the government taking steps to unilaterally push forward the plan,” said Choi Dae-jib, the president of the association.

Doctors have consistently complained that policymakers are railroading the plan without proper consultation with those in the medical field and without regard for how the program will be funded in the long term.  [Yonhap]

I do find it interesting that the Moon administration is willing to send police to chase down these human rights activists, but they won’t send police to keep the road to the THAAD site in Seongju open:

A local civic group led by a North Korean defector attempted to send leaflets criticizing the Kim Jong-un regime across the border last weekend but was blocked by police, after both Koreas agreed at their latest summit not to disseminate propaganda material into each other’s country.

But Park Sang-hak, leader of Fighters for Free North Korea, claimed he already flew 150,000 leaflets into the North last Thursday from an undisclosed venue in Gimpo, Gyeonggi, accusing Pyongyang’s recent olive branch to Seoul of being a “disguised peace offensive.”

Park’s attempt to send more leaflets on Saturday noon from Paju, Gyeonggi, just south of the inter-Korean border, fell on the last day of the so-called North Korea Freedom Week, the last week of every April during which nongovernmental organizations promoting human rights in North Korea shed light on the regime’s atrocities.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

For those that don’t know Mr. Park Sang-hak the leader of Fighters for a Free North Korea, he is the person that the South Korean leftists have sent thugs to assault and the Kim regime has sent assassins to kill.  Despite all of this Mr. Park continues to fearlessly launch balloons into North Korea.   I think it is only a matter of time before the leftist thugs are sent after Park again.

For Suzanne Scholte pictured above I don’t know what visa she is on, but the Moon administration could try and silence her by claiming she is violating her visa by conducting political activity.  It is pretty clear that for the next few years operations for these North Korean human rights organizations is going to be very difficult.

Not only has Heather Cho been vilified, sent to jail, and lost her job because of the “nut rage” incident now she is getting divorced and may lose custody of her kids:

Cho Hyun-ah, former executive of Korean Air, who made global headlines with the infamous nut rage scandal, faces a divorce lawsuit from her husband of eight years.

According to legal sources on Monday, Cho’s husband filed a divorce suit to Seoul Family Court on April 2, and requested custody of their children.

Cho hasn’t yet appointed an attorney and the trial date hasn’t been set, Yonhap reported.

Cho and her husband, the head of a famous cosmetic surgery practice in Gangnam, married in 2010 and had twins.  [UPI]

You can read more at the link.

Here are how police in Daegu are hoping to help prevent crime by foreign workers in Daegu:

Daegu Seobu Police have been cooperating with foreigners to jointly patrol areas where crimes by foreigners often occur.

On Wednesday, 16 members of Seo-gu Bisan 7-dong voluntary crime prevention group joined police patrols.

The area around Bukbu Bus Terminal where many foreigners hang out was their target area.

The crew included seven foreigners ― one Sri Lankan, one Chinese, three Pakistanis and two Bangladeshis.

“Bisan 7-dong around Bukbu Bus Terminal is one of the areas with a high density of foreigners. Crimes involving foreigners take place frequently,” inspector Kim Dong-sik said.   [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

It must be a slow day for the Korean police to warrant raiding a blogger for rigging comments:

Police on Sunday raided a local publishing company run by an influential blogger as part of a probe into allegations that he ran a massive scheme to manipulate online comments in news articles about President Moon Jae-in.

Police sent investigators to search the premises in Paju, north of Seoul, and confiscate evidence, including digital files and surveillance footage, officials said.

Law enforcement authorities are investigating the suspected rigging of Internet news comments by the 48-year-old surnamed Kim, who’s now been charged along with two accomplices over the scandal. Kim, who goes by the nickname “Druking”, is alleged to have used a software program to jack up the number of clicks in support of the president.

The incident has sparked a fierce political dispute ahead of the June 13 local elections, as Rep. Kim Kyoung-soo of the ruling Democratic Party, a close aide to President Moon, is known to have been in contact with Druking for years.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on Friday said Kim had sent Druking messages that contained the web addresses of certain news articles related to the president.  [Yonhap]

Maybe the Vietnamese should put statues up in front of the ROK embassy protesting South Korean killing of civilians during the Vietnam War like they Koreans have done with a comfort woman statue in front of the Japanese embassy:

Two Vietnamese victims of South Korea’s wartime misdeeds have called on the Seoul government to apologize and take steps to verify the truth behind the alleged mass killings during the 1960-75 war in their country.

They claimed that they are still haunted by the harrowing memories of their families being killed by South Korean troops deployed to fight in support of the United States during the Vietnam War.

They came here to testify before the “People’s Tribunal” slated to convene in Seoul on Saturday and Sunday. The tribunal, a mock trial designed to look into the incidents, is led by the local progressive civic group, called MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society.

“I want to ask … Why did South Korean troops fire guns and threw grenades at our family, then just women and children. Why did you set even our house on fire and bulldozed through dead bodies,” Nguyen Titan, a 58-year-old woman, said during a press conference at the National Assembly.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the Minbyun group of lawyers are hard core leftists.  In the past they have attacked the USFK base relocation, tried to bring back the US beef issue, and tried to have North Korean defectors forcibly returned to North Korea.  So why would hard core leftists be bringing up this issue now with a left wing government in power?  They are likely going to use this issue to attack and blame conservative ROK politicians for since former South Korean strongman Park Chung-hee was in power at the time.

This seems like a long time after the fact to be complaining to the ROK Defense Ministry to clean up soil pollution:

The city government of Uijeongbu, north of Seoul, has demanded the defense ministry conduct an examination into soil contamination at a former U.S. military base site in the city, officials said Tuesday.

The Uijeongbu city government bought the former Camp Sears site from the defense ministry in 2012 after the land was returned to the ministry in 2007 under a base consolidation and relocation plan, known as the Land Partnership Program (LPP).

Nine oil tanks had existed on the base to supply oil to other American bases north of Seoul. When the site was returned, most of the land was contaminated, with total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) levels up to 73 times the maximum permissible levels.

The ministry commissioned the Korea Environment Corporation to clean up the site from 2009 and 2012 before the Uijeongbu city government purchased the land as part of a project to establish an administrative complex housing public and government agencies.

Last month, the city broke ground at the site to build a fire department headquarters.

But the construction was halted recently as oil residue was found at the site. Tests were conducted on samples taken from four locations at the site, and two of them had TPH levels of 836 mg per kilogram and 585 mg/kg, which is higher than the permissible 500 mg/kg, officials said.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but the ROK Defense Ministry wants tests to be done to prove the pollution is from military activity and not from someone dumping it there after the handover.  Camp Sears was closed all the way back in 2005 and it was no secret that fuel tanks were on the base.  Here is a 2011 picture of the fuel tanks from after the closure of Camp Sears:

You would think that the city would have done a thorough inspection for pollution around the old fuel tanks.  On the old site of Camp Sears a number of government offices were built after its closure and maybe the ROK Defense Ministry is concerned that construction companies were dumping waste on that side of the camp?