Meanwhile, Seoul’s new Defense White Paper removes reference to:#northkorea as “enemy” “THAAD” “Shared values of free democracy and market economy with Japan”
While it inserts: “Strong will to defend Dokdo and maintain defense preparedness”
Via a reader tip comes news that President Moon’s official aircraft was blacklisted by the US for traveling to North Korea:
President Moon Jae-in (center) shakes hands with Czech Presidential Office chief Jan Novák (left) on arrival in Prague on Nov. 27. /Newsis
President Moon Jae-in’s official airplane has been blacklisted by the U.S. because it had flown him to North Korea, it emerged Wednesday. The official plane even had to be cleared for a visit to the U.S. in September after it was slapped with a 180-day ban. One diplomatic source said, “A blacklisted plane can only travel to the U.S. by special permission.” U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in September 2017 that bans all aircraft that traveled to North Korea from entering the U.S. for 180 days. But exceptions can be made. A U.S. government official confirmed that Moon’s plane had to receive authorization even when Moon went to New York on Sept. 24 to attend the UN General Assembly and meet Trump.
You can read more at the link, but by getting the rail and roads connected with North Korea like President Moon has been pushing hard to do, he can avoid the aircraft blacklisting problem.
President Moon’s approval rating continues drop despite near complete control of the government, media, and the ability to silence to critics through legal action:
President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating dropped below 50 percent for the first time since he took office in May 2017, the latest Realmeter presidential poll showed Thursday.
Moon’s approval rating hit 48.8 percent in its ninth straight week of decline.
Analysts blamed the decline on Korea’s stagnating economy and Moon’s preoccupation with inter-Korean relations. Denuclearization talks with the North have stalled recently.
The approval rating of the ruling Democratic Party also dipped to 37.6 percent in the same Realmeter poll, 1.6 percentage points lower than the previous survey. It also declined for the past nine weeks.
In contrast, the main opposition Liberty Korea Party reached its highest popularity rating since the infamous Choi Soon-sil scandal broke out in October 2016, which led to former President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment.
The party had an approval rating of 26.2 percent in the latest poll, 3.3 percentage points higher than the previous survey and the highest since the third week of October 2016, when it was 29.6 percent. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
It seems like President Moon is in a race to get sanctions dropped, a peace treaty signed, and loads of free cash to North Korea before his approval ratings drop so low he politically cannot move forward with his agenda:
President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating has dropped for the seventh consecutive week.
According to a new Real Meter survey of one-thousand-500 adults nationwide conducted between Monday and Wednesday, 53-point-eight percent of respondents answered that the president is doing a good job, down one-point-six percentage points from last week.
Over 39 percent of respondents had negative assessments about Moon’s performance, up one-point-one percentage points.
Real Meter attributed the falling approval rating to public concerns about the economy fanned by news of worsening economic indicators and the government’s failing economic policies. [KBS Global]
The economy is continuing to slump in South Korea and President Moon appears to be trying to show he is doing something to address it:
Hong Nam-ki, chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, speaks to reporters at his office on Nov. 9, 2018, after his nomination as the new finance minister. (Yonhap)
President Moon Jae-in sacked the finance minister and his chief policy adviser Friday after the two top economic policymakers openly displayed a serious rift over how to handle the slumping economy.
Moon named Hong Nam-ki, an economic technocrat who is currently serving as chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination under the Prime Minister’s Office, to replace Kim Dong-yeon as finance minister and deputy prime minister for economic affairs, Cheong Wa Dae said.
Moon also sacked Jang Ha-sung, presidential chief of staff for policy, and named his senior social affairs secretary Kim Soo-hyun to succeed him. Jang is the architect of Moon’s trademark “income-led” growth policy.
Kim and Jang have publicly displayed wide differences over how to revitalize the sluggish economy, with Kim voicing a need to alter the “income-led” growth policy and Jang insisting on sticking to the distribution-centered policy.
Their replacement was seen in part as aimed at revamping the economic team as they failed to produce tangible results in revitalizing Asia’s fourth-largest economy. Their sacking was also seen as a measure to hold them responsible for failing to work in concert with each other. [Yonhap]
Could you imagine the precedent this would set for the tech companies if they have to pay taxes to every country where citizens use its services? Users are already paying a fee to the Internet provider in the country that is being taxed:
South Korea is considering launching probes into global tech companies that have come under suspicion for not paying their dues, the government here said Wednesday.
The move comes amid growing criticism that global tech giants, including Google Inc. and Facebook Inc., have not properly paid their taxes to local authorities while generating profits every year.
“The government is aware that it is a problem that needs to be more actively addressed,” ICT Minister Yoo Young-min said during an annual audit with lawmakers. “The ministry is mulling over the launch of a joint investigation with the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Financial Services Commission and the Fair Trade Commission.”
The lawmakers at the gathering argued that the government should come up with countermeasures to properly deal with alleged wrongdoings by the multinationals if they do not follow local regulations.
“It is vital that an organization should be set up to come up with joint countermeasures against global companies that may not be paying their taxes here,” said Rep. Kim Kyung-jin, adding that it’s important to find out how much foreign companies make. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but I think Dr. Tara O may be on to why the ROK government is looking at going after the tech companies:
Park Kwang-on, Deoburreo Minju Party, “asked” Google to remove 104 YouTube cases. When Google didn’t, he called Google Korea head for questioning re alleged tax evasion& alleged fake YouTube. High pressure tactics to suppress voices for freedom, rule of law, pro-ROK-US alliance https://t.co/QKZcsRkRaY
I'm sure it happens all the time in the Middle East and in former Soviet republics, but I never really put South Korea in the same category until recently. This is the hallmark of an authoritarian state. Democracies don't behave this way. https://t.co/nYABICUFPs
This undated file photo shows Minister of Unification Cho Myoung-gyon (Yonhap)
Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon held meeting with defectors in Seoul on Wednesday where he apologized for his controversial decision to prevent a defector-turned-journalist from covering recent inter-Korean talks, a participant said.
Cho had a lunch meeting with representatives of three North Korean defector groups at a Seoul restaurant to explain his position on the controversy and listen to defectors’ opinions on pending inter-Korean issues.
One participant said after the meeting, “Minister Cho said sorry and made an apology for excluding a defector-turned-journalist from the coverage of inter-Korean talks.”
The minister recently caused a stir by excluding a defector-turned-journalist of the conservative Chosun Ilbo daily newspaper from the pool of reporters covering high-level inter-Korean talks held at the truce village of Panmunjom on Oct. 15. [Chosun Ilbo]
#SouthKorean PM Lee said "He was great, but frugal, frugal, but great. He loved his subjects & he received the love of his subjects. I become endlessly small & ashamed when faced with the life of 'juseok." (A term used for a communist leader)" when visiting Ho Chi Min museum. https://t.co/pbDeQq6jGd
It looks like the Moon administration has found another governmental figure from the former Park government timeframe to go after:
Prosecutors have obtained a USB flash drive belonging to former Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae as part of their probe into the judicial power abuse scandal.The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said Monday its investigators seized Yang’s flash drive from his residence the day before, containing documents that could link him to the top court’s alleged collusion with the previous Park Geun-hye government.
While the court had only issued a search warrant for Yang’s automobile, prosecutors were able to seize the thumb drive as the warrant allowed them to search other places where they were certain to find evidence subject to seizure.During Sunday’s raid, Yang and his lawyer are reported to have told prosecutors the USB flash drive which the former chief justice carried with him after his retirement last year was stored inside his study.
Prosecutors suspect Yang was in charge of the Supreme Court’s various power abuses, such as using politically sensitive trials as bargaining chips to win favor with the administration and creating a slush fund from lower court budgets. [KBS World Radio]
