I agree with this article that for the younger generation of Koreans the influence peddling scandal is to be expected, but the cheating to get Choi Soon-sil’s daughter into Ewha Women’s University is what really infuriates them:
A rigorously meritocratic education system lies at the heart of South Korea’s stellar rise from the ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War to Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
The system is highly competitive and can take a distressing toll on young students who devote their teenage years to studying for the national college entrance exam.
Admission to one of a handful of elite universities — such as Ewha — is seen as vital to a student’s future prosperity, social standing and even marriage prospects.
But however cut-throat it might be, there is steadfast public faith and trust in the exam’s fairness, with every applicant sitting the same paper on the same day, and a formalised marking system.
That faith is summed up in a term popular for decades, “a dragon from a ditch” — a person of modest means who rose to success through education and hard work. (………..)
“But Chung and Choi shattered this faith and hope spectacularly,” it said.
Park’s presidency has coincided with growing disquiet over a widening disparity in incomes and opportunities — an inequality now embodied in the public mind by Choi and her daughter.
In a now-infamous Facebook posting in 2014, Chung flaunted her privilege, saying: “Money is part of your talent. If you don’t have talent, blame your parents.”
The depth of anger over Chung’s admission to Ewha has been illustrated by the large number of high-school students who have taken part in weekly mass demonstrations that have seen millions march through the streets of Seoul and other cities.
“I was so angry about Chung and couldn’t even sleep when I first heard about her scandal,” said Jenny Park, a 16-year-old high school student.
“What’s the point of studying night and day when the rich and powerful can rig the whole system so easily?” she said, waving a banner reading “We didn’t study hard for this.” [AFP]
You can read more at the link, but like I said before I seriously doubt Choi Soon-sil is the only rich and connected person to get their kids into major universities in Korea through improper means.
This is something that seems to happen from time to time which is random people getting killed by long forgotten landmines near the Korean DMZ:
The front of the badly damaged truck, whose driver was killed. / Yonhap
A dump truck driver was killed in an apparent landmine explosion at a farm in Cheorwon Country, Gangwon Province, on Wednesday afternoon.
The man, surnamed Han, was severely injured while carrying stones and earth from a construction site to a nearby farm. He died in hospital.
From August to October, military authorities searched for landmines at the construction site near Pungam Dam using excavators. After the military confirmed there were no landmines, Cheorwon County began moving the excavated soil. [Korea Times]
Many foreigners do not seem to realize this, but attending protest rallies is actually illegal in Korea:
Foreigners participating in the protests against President Park Geun-hye may carry legal complications ― theoretically.
“As legal counsel I would say not to go to the rallies, as there are some articles in law that in principle prohibit foreigners from attending rallies,” said Nam Won-chul, a lawyer with Hwang Mok Park law firm.
According to the Immigration Control Act, “No foreigner sojourning in the Republic of Korea shall engage in any political activity with the exception of cases provided by this Act or other statutes.” The act empowers the Ministry of Justice to order a violator “in writing to suspend such activity” or “take other necessary measures.”
This may include deportation or a ban on visa renewal, according to one source familiar with the matter.
The law applies to all foreigners regardless of visa type, Nam says. “According to the text of the article, I think all foreigners are uniformly prohibited from political activities.” [Korea Times]
Amb @mwlippert rode a pedal-powered bike to light the Christmas Tree at Seoul City Hall Plaza, and wished you a great holiday season! pic.twitter.com/yy1XnttGUE
Not a single protester jailed or officer harmed in weeks of mass rally. Lawmaker @bdmin1958 says Koreans deserve Nobel peace prize candidacy pic.twitter.com/oAyOQ4LBFm
The issue of foreign English teachers being forced to take a HIV test before gaining employment in Korea has come up again:
One of my favorite cartoons from the English Spectrum-gate timeframe.
To teach English in Korea, Christina had to prove she was not HIV-positive.
The US citizen was reluctant, but complied with the rule, undergoing a blood test for HIV and submitting the results to local authorities in order to get a job at a public school.
When she found out that Korean and Korean-American teachers at the school were exempted from the test despite doing the same job, she was offended.
“It perpetuates perceptions of foreigners as dirty, dangerous and impure. I think it is discriminatory and xenophobic,” said Christina, who first came to Korea in 2010 and now teaches in Gwangju.
“It also perpetuates stereotypes about HIV and the people who have it,” she told The Korea Herald.
For nearly a decade, South Korea has made it mandatory for foreigners wishing to work here to undergo blood tests for HIV, rejecting those found to be HIV-positive.
This policy, introduced in 2007 after complaints from locals over “dangerous law-breaking foreigners,” including English teachers, may come to an end soon, as the government is considering a recent recommendation by the country’s human rights panel to do away with it.
“The Justice Ministry is collecting opinions from relevant ministries such as the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health and Welfare to decide whether to accept the recommendation,” it said in response to an inquiry by The Korea Herald.
A recommendation of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea is not legally binding, but the government must decide whether to accept it within 90 days. In this case, the deadline is Dec. 7. [Korea Herald]
You can read much more at the link, but over at Gusts of Popular Feeling there is a good run down on the history of the HIV testing law.
For those who are not long time readers of the ROK Drop the passing of the mandatory HIV testing law had nothing to do with concerns about HIV or drugs. It began in 2005 when English Spectrum-gate occurred. Some foreign English teachers made derogatory comments about Korean women on the English Spectrum website that a Korean netizen noticed. It soon exploded within the Korean Internet community who rallied to take down the webpage. However, the taking down of English Spectrum did not stop the Korean netizen fury against what they believed to be unqualified foreign English teachers running around the country taking drugs and molesting Korean women. An Anti-English Spectrum group was formed that actually wanted to provoke incidents with foreigners in certain university areas in order to push them out.
The controversy led the Korean government to order a crackdown against foreign English teachers. The crackdown got so bad I felt compelled to offer my advice to English teachers on how to blend in as a US GI. The anti-English Spectrum group was eventually able to lobby to get laws passed in 2007 to make it harder to get an E2 visa which is how the HIV testing came about. Since then the Korean government has faced accusations of discrimination, but have refused to revoke the HIV testing law. It looks like within the next few weeks we will know if South Korea will continue to enforce this discriminatory law.
The government is issuing a 48-hour temporary nationwide “standstill” order this weekend banning the movement of poultry in an effort to prevent the spread of bird flu.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs came to the decision at a meeting Friday as the bird flu alert status was raised from “caution” to “alert.”
The two-day standstill applies all day Saturday and Sunday.
Some 89-thousand poultry farms, slaughter houses, fodder plants and related vehicles registered with the Korea Animal Health Integrated System(KAHIS) are subject to the order.
The move comes amid outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N6 strain of avian influenza(AI) at farms nationwide. [KBS World Radio]
A Russian professor at SNU apparently had a bad experience with a student possibly trying to hit on her that led to her writing an open letter that has gone viral on Korean social media:
Olga Fedorenko
A female foreign professor at Seoul National University wrote an open letter to a man on campus who allegedly accosted her last month and became hostile after she refused to help him pronounce the word “coincidence.”
Olga Fedorenko, an assistant professor at the Department of Anthropology, whose nationality is Russian, wrote in a 1,402-word open letter that she was walking alone on a “dark, isolated street” at the school in Gwanak District, southwestern Seoul, at 9 p.m. on Oct. 5, when a man approached her, held out his cell phone and asked her how to pronounce the English word.
“I wondered if it was a really awkward pickup line,” Fedorenko recalled.
“I told you that I don’t want to talk to you. It was a weird request, the street was poorly illuminated, and there was no one around.”
When she turned to walk away, the man allegedly began to shout at her and use “aggressive” body language, evidently because she had used the word “weird.”
Fedorenko reportedly called security and walked to a main street, but the young man followed, lurking behind her and swearing in Korean, until three Korean women approached to help and try to reason with him.
“I was astonished to hear that this whole situation was actually my fault,” wrote the professor. “I apparently embarrassed you by refusing to engage with you.”
She also wrote, “To my utter disbelief, I think the three women even apologized to you on my behalf.”
According to the letter, the altercation came to an end when a security guard appeared, at which point the man claimed he was a computer science student at the school.
Fedorenko wrote that the security guard walked her home because she feared the man would follow her and take revenge for his “embarrassment.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but I have been accosted before in Korea by a crazy guy outside of Jongmyo of all places that the security guard at the entrance to the shrine had to intervene to get the guy off of me. I think if you live in Korea long enough as a foreigner you are bound to have somebody crazy eventually bother you at some point because of how much we stand out. Considering how Ms. Fedorenko is a good looking female professor at SNU she probably has to deal with more than her fair share of crazy people as this incident demonstrates.
It sounds like this opposition party lawmaker is trying to stop the THAAD deployment to South Korea by linking it to the Choi Soon-sil scandal:
An Min-suk
Rep. An Min-suk of the main opposition party said Thursday that Choi Soon-sil’s influence even extended to Seoul’s controversial decision to deploy the U.S.-led Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system.
He went on to allege that the president’s close friend, who is at the center of an influence-peddling scandal known as Choi-gate, would have pocketed a large commission from the deal with Lockheed Martin, the American arms producer.
“To my knowledge, Choi met with the Lockheed Martin chairperson in June,” said An, a four-term lawmaker of the Minjoo Party of Korea and co-chair of his party’s special committee to investigate alleged manipulation of the Park Geun-hye administration’s affairs, on a radio interview with TBS.
According to An, Choi was linked to Lockheed by a foreign affairs and security field big shot in the Park administration. Seoul and Washington in July announced they will deploy Thaad in South Korea to counter Pyongyang’s missile threats.
When asked if this individual was currently in office or not, An replied, “I cannot reveal that here.” But this person was supported by Lockheed for two years during his time in the United States some six years ago, claimed An, who added, “The link between Choi Soon-sil and Lockheed Martin is being revealed.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but Lockheed Martin has nothing to do with the deployment of the THAAD battery to the ROK. The US military has already purchased the THAAD battery from Lockheed Martin, thus they have already made their profit from the sale. Why would they give Choi a commission for deploying THAAD to Korea? It makes no sense. If Lockheed Martin had sold a THAAD battery to the ROK and were meeting with Choi beforehand then his complaint would make more sense.
Lockheed Martin does have plenty of other systems that it has sold and is planning to sell to the ROK:
South Korean President Park Geun-hye meets Lockheed Martin CEO and President Marillyn Hewson during the president’s visit to Washington, DC. Photo Courtesy U.S. Chamber
Over the past 40 years, the U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin have made Aegis the most capable combat system in the world. More than 100 ships and six international navies, including the Republic of Korea, rely on Aegis. In addition to Aegis, Lockheed Martin was awarded three new contracts in 2012 to support the supply chain needs for the Korean Air Force and Navy. The Korean Air Force also is evaluating the F-35 to advance its force to the fifth-generation of fighter jets. Other programs include the T-50 trainer jet, F-16, C-130, P-3 Orion and FPS-117 radar.
At Lockheed Martin, we do more than deliver programs and capabilities. We’re also invested where we live and work, adding fuel to the engine of South Korea’s economy. For example, Lockheed Martin and Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) have co-produced the F-16 for more than 20 years. We also partnered with Samsung Data Systems to modernize Korea’s air traffic management system with the Korean Area Control Center (KACC) system and, through a partnership with Korea Telecom, successfully produced several communications satellites. Lockheed Martin is particularly proud of its partnership with Korean Aerospace Industries in the development of the T-50 Golden Eagle and is determined to make it the premier trainer in the world.
Lockheed Martin highly values its long-standing relationship with the Republic of Korea and its Korean industry partners. The company is committed to helping Korea meet its desire to grow its industrial base and looks forward to extending the relationship with the F-35 as the centerpiece of the next 40 years of industrial cooperation. [Lockheed Martin]
If the story of Choi meeting the Lockheed Chairman is even true then discussing Korea’s purchase of the F-35 would make more sense. Anyway Representative An’s claims have been expanded on by the Chinese media who are linking Choi to a noted arms dealer named Linda Kim:
Lockheed Martin financially supported the child of a “core figure” in charge of South Korea’s security policy when the child was studying abroad several years ago, said Ahn, who didn’t elaborate on whether the child was staying in the United States.
The opposition lawmaker raised a possibility for the core figure to introduce Choi to the Lockheed Martin side, saying he will try to find a truth when the National Assembly launches its own investigation into the scandal next month.
Ahn has claimed a collusive link between Choi and the U.S. arms company to peddle undue influence on the South Korean government’s weapons procurement contracts.
In an emergency parliamentary session on Nov. 11, Ahn inquired Defense Minister Han Min-koo about whether the defense chief was informed of the contacts of Jeong Yoon-hoe, Choi’s ex-husband, with arms lobbyist Linda Kim and the Lockheed Martin side.
Lockheed Martin is a manufacturer of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), a U.S. military defense system which South Korea agreed in July with the U.S. to deploy in its soil by the end of next year. [Xinhua]
So who is this lobbyist Linda Kim? She is a former Korean actress who made her debut in 1970 under the name Kim Ah Ra. She went on to film cosmetic commercials and become an unsuccessful singer. She immigrated to the United States in 1979 and eventually ended up become a lobbyist linked to a sex scandal nearly 20 years ago to influence weapons procurement in the ROK:
The world’s biggest military business faces an embarrassing legal row following claims that an agent called Linda Kim, a former dancer and singer, bribed top soldiers and offered sexual favours to the country’s defence minister.
California’s Supreme Court ruled that the company can be sued under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act over the claims, which are denied by Lockheed and Ms Kim. The Korea Supply Company (KSC) alleges that it lost a $30m (£19m) commission after a Canadian business it represented was denied the contract due to “wrongful conduct”.
In 1996 a Lockheed subsidiary won a $225m deal to supply an aircraft radar system, one of several deals it struck with the South Korean government.
Ms Kim, 52, who has retired from military broking and lives in Los Angeles, said through a lawyer that she “strongly denied every allegation” in the complaint. She previously served a short prison sentence after being convicted of using similar techniques of persuasion to win deals for other clients.
South Korea’s former defence minister, Lee Yang Ho, admitted to having “an inappropriate relationship” with Ms Kim after love letters she sent to him appeared in a newspaper. He denied that this relationship had influenced his decisions about awarding contracts. [The Telegraph]
If things could not get any weirder, Linda Kim has also been linked to a bizarre Hollywood double murder involving Playboy playmates, a Wall Street ponzi scheme and stolen jewels that were replicas of the ones Julia Roberts wore in the movie Pretty Woman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2pzkenbhIA
Linda Kim is still very active in arm dealing as the Joong Ang Ilbo previously reported her role in lobbying for South Korea to purchase Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter which she was successful at winning. Interestingly enough the Chinese media is reporting that Linda Kim is currently in jail for drug charges:
Choi had reportedly maintained an acquaintance with the arms lobbyist at least since 2000. The lobbyist has been detained in October for drug-administering charges.
Asking to see Linda Kim at the detention center has recently been banned, said the Minjoo Party lawmaker who described the arms lobbyist as one of “key men” that can tell the truth about the collusive link. [Xinhua]
She is apparently mired in gambling debt as well according to the Donga Ilbo. The more I read about Linda Kim the more I think her and Choi Soon-sil probably deserve a jail cell together.
