Kim San-jo, #SouthKorea's Fair Trade Commission head, says #MoonJaein is like Steve Jobs #2. What? Kim & Moon both r busy over-regulating businesses, kicking out CEOs, investigating/harassing businesses non-stop, & stifle innovation. Where's the similarity? https://t.co/rXoxrJdIrz
— Tara O (@DrTaraO) May 28, 2019
It appears the ROK foreign ministry is not very good at keeping state secrets:
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has come under fire once again for an ethical lapse among its staff after a diplomat leaked information from a telephone conversation between President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump.
Korea Times
Cheong Wa Dae and the ministry are considering legal action against the 54-year-old diplomat for allegedly leaking the confidential information to Rep. Khang Hyo-shang, a lawmaker from the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP).
The diplomat, working at the South Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C., is suspected of sharing some key details of the Moon-Trump phone conversation with his high school alumni Khang, the day after the two leaders held talks.
The presidential office said the diplomat admitted to the incident.
“The telephone conversations between leaders of two countries are identified and categorized as the third-highest level of state diplomatic secrecy,” a senior presidential aide told reporters in a briefing, Thursday.
You can read more at the link.
Since the #MoonJaein administration took over 2 years ago, its policies have yielded many public enterprises to go in red. This time, it's the post office. $168M loss. The first time in 135 years–that's even older than #SouthKorea. https://t.co/mHDO4VPluq
— Tara O (@DrTaraO) May 21, 2019
The Moon administration’s response to their poor economic policies appears to be to just spend more money:
President Moon Jae-in ordered the government on Thursday to spend more aggressively to solve problems such as slowing growth, weak jobs and worsening demographic changes.
Joong Ang Ilbo
“There are many areas in which we are still inadequate where people could feel improvements in the overall quality of their lives,” Moon said during a government national fiscal strategy meeting in Sejong. “There’s a need for the [government] finances to take a bolder role, more than ever, in urgently solving our society’s structural problems from low growth, polarization [of the top and bottom tiers], jobs, low fertility rate and aging population.”
Although this is the third meeting held under the current administration, it was the first time that the meeting was held in Sejong instead of at the Blue House.
“We’re at a turning point where we have to look back on our achievements in the last two years and prepare for the remaining three years,” Moon said.
Moon particularly stressed that low-income people outside of the employment market, such as those who run small businesses like restaurants and convenience stores, need help.
“Self-employed people and those in lower-income households are struggling the most and this hurts me,” Moon said. “There is a demand for a more aggressive fiscal role in expanding jobs, enhancement on job safety nets such as introducing a system where additional financial support is provided for those whose unemployment paychecks has ended and measures for self-employed businesses.”
You can read more at the link, but the whole reason small businesses are struggling and unemployment is up is because of the steep minimum wage increase that has raised labor costs and caused major job layoffs.
This may be President Moon’s greatest legacy, appointing left-wing ideologues into the Constitutional Court to ram through North Korea related legislation:
President Moon Jae-in on Friday rammed through the appointments of two Constitutional Court justices whom lawmakers refused to confirm.
Moon formalized the appointments of Lee Mi-sun and Moon Hyung-bae to the bench of the Constitutional Court around 12:40 p.m. on Friday, Senior Presidential Secretary for Public Affairs Yoon Do-han said.“In order to prevent vacancies in the Constitutional Court, Moon, currently on a state visit to Uzbekistan, used the electronic signature system to approve the appointments,” Yoon said.
Joong Ang Ilbo
Those appointments brought the number of top officials Moon rammed through without National Assembly conformation hearing reports to 15. Since he took office in May 2017, Moon named 11 minister-level officials and four Constitutional Court judges without getting lawmakers’ blessings, which is legal.
This news of packing the Constitutional court with ideologues friendly to the Moon administration has made his political opposition very unhappy:
The LKP has fiercely protested Moon’s picks. Earlier Friday morning, Rep. Na Kyung-won, floor leader of the LKP, said Moon insisted on the appointments because they “are the final pieces to complete Moon’s puzzle to create a leftist dictatorship.”
Joong Ang Ilbo
It takes six out of nine Constitutional Court justices to rule a law unconstitutional, and Na said Moon has secured the magic number.
“The Moon administration will no longer have any reason to struggle in the National Assembly to revise laws,” she said. “It can just file constitutional petitions against laws it does not like and rule them unconstitutional.”
Remember President Moon wants to create a confederation with North Korea. Packing the Constitutional Court with left wing ideologues will allow him to pass any laws needed to make this a reality.
If it wasn’t bad enough that so called “meritorious persons” are receiving much more lavish government benefits than veterans, now certain veterans may not even be able to get buried in a national cemetery:
A controversy surfaced when the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans pursued an initiative to cancel burial benefits for military veterans with less than 20 years service but more than 10 years service and instead make room for the burial of those who participated in candlelight protests and those designated as “Democracy Movement Meritorious Persons.” This means certain military veterans will no longer be eligible to be buried at the national cemeteries. The Korean War Veterans Association and other veterans groups strongly opposed the move.
East Asia Research Center
You can read much more at the link.
If anyone is wondering what happened to the former Blue House Chief of Staff and North Korean bagman, Im Jong-seok after he resigned, don’t worry because he was given a golden parachute of a position in the UAE:
Nearly two weeks after President Moon Jae-in let his former chief of staff go in a show of reform, the Blue House announced Monday that Im Jong-seok will return as Moon’s special advisor for the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Joong Ang Ilbo
Han Byung-do, former senior secretary for political affairs, was named Moon’s special advisor for Iraq.
Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said during a press briefing Monday that Im had strengthened mutual trust between Korea and the UAE while serving as presidential chief of staff, and that based on this, the Blue House expects him to contribute immensely to boosting Korea’s national interests in his new post as advisor for the UAE.
You can read more at the link.
Dr. Tara O over at the East Asia Research Center has another very interesting article published about how government compensation payments to “meritorious persons” from the Gwangju Uprising are so much higher than those given to Korean and Vietnam War veterans:
The Gwangju Incident that began on May 18, 1980 is referred to as “5.18” in Korea. Those designated as 5.18 Yugogja (5.18 “Meritorious Persons”) and their families receive extensive benefits from the South Korean government. Unlike Korean War and Vietnam War veterans, whose status is determined by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans, the 5.18 Yugongja is determined in Gwangju. While technically it falls under the Prime Minister’s office, de facto, the process and the decisions are made at the local government level. However, it is the national government that pays the benefits.
East Asia Research Center
Below is an excerpt of a chart that shows the differences in compensation. Click the link to see the full chart:
Besides the extreme difference in compensation here is what makes this issue even more controversial is that the lists keeps growing. Plus politically connected people who were not even at Gwangju are now being selected as “meritorious persons” and getting the free cash and benefits:
For an event that occurred 39 years ago, it seems the number of 5.18 Yugongja should fall over time. However, the number has been increasing, especially in recent years. In 1990, the first year the 5.18 Yugongja designation occurred, the number was 2,224. As of August 2018, the number was 4,403. In 2017, the number was 4,377, so it has increased by 26 in 8 months. How is this possible?
It includes even those who were not present in Gwangju. National Assemblyman Lee Hae-chan, the leader of the Deoburreo Minju Party, publicly admitted, “I became a Gwangju democracy Movement Yugongja, although I hadn’t even gone to Gwangju (then).” (0:30). Lee Hae-chan was the former Prime Minister under Rho Moo-hyun and Education Minister under Kim Dae-jung. At least 30-40 other politicians are thought to be designated as 5.18 Yugongja.
This has caused conservative politicians to demand the release of the names of this growing list, but unlike the list of Korean and Vietnam War veterans this list is being kept secret. I think it is fair to say that certain people do not want the list released because it will show how it has become a way to reward politically connected people, thus why it keeps growing.
This “meritorious person” list reminds me of the National Medal of the Order of Merit for National Foundation where politically connected people are given generous stipends for this medal.
I am trying to think of an equivalent of politically connected corruption in the U.S. using a national medal of designation and I can’t think of one. The Presidential Medal of Freedom has long been given to politically connected people, but they are not getting huge payouts like in the ROK. Can anyone think of equivalent in the U.S. where politically connected people are getting huge payouts for an award or designation?
Here is the most hypocritical thing I have read all week:
Japan’s emperor should hold hands with women forced to work in the country’s military brothels and make a personal apology if Tokyo wants to end the decades-old dispute, South Korea’s top lawmaker said.
National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang said in an interview Thursday that Japanese Emperor Akihito — as the “the son of the main culprit of war crimes” — should deliver the apology before his planned abdication in May. Moon was asked how the two U.S. allies could resolve a worsening diplomatic feud fueled by disagreements over Japan’s 1910-45 occupation of the Korean Peninsula, much of it under the emperor’s late father, Hirohito.“It only takes one word from the prime minister, who represents Japan — I wish the emperor would do it since he will step down soon,” said Moon, South Korea’s No. 2 elected official and a former presidential envoy to Japan. “Isn’t he the son of the main culprit of war crimes?
Bloomberg
“So, if a person like that holds the hands of the elderly and says he’s really sorry, then that one word will resolve matters once and for all,” he said.
So will Moon Hee-sang next call for Kim Jong-un to hold hands and apologize to the victims of the Korean War, something his grandfather caused that was far more destructive than anything the Japanese ever did to South Korea? Or call for him to hold hands and apologize to the families of South Koreans abducted over the years by North Korea? Better yet will he call for Kim Jong-un to hold hands with the families of the victims of the Cheonan sinking and Yeonpyeong Island shelling?
Instead of calling for these apologies, South Korea’s left wing politicians like Moon Hee-sang instead want to pay tribute to Kim Jong-un. The Japanese government should call out these South Korean politicians for their hypocrisy.
This is probably not the economic advice that most Koreans want to hear, that they need to leave their country and move to Southeast Asia:
President Moon Jae-in’s economic adviser Kim Hyun-chul resigned Tuesday after drawing public ire for saying that young, unemployed Korean language graduates who can’t find a job here should stop blaming “Hell Joseon” and move to Southeast Asia to become Korean language teachers.
Joong Ang Ilbo
Hell Joseon is a term often used to describe how tough Korea can be on its students and graduates looking for jobs amid fierce competition.
Kim, who also teaches international marketing at the Seoul National University Graduate School of International Studies, made the remark on Monday in a speech to local CEOs at a luncheon hosted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in central Seoul. The gathering was meant to promote the New Southern Policy, Moon’s ambitious vision of expanding Korea’s influence in Southeast Asia with the promise of treating members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) as diplomatic and economic partners as important to Korea as the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
You can read more at the link.
