Category: Politics-Korea

That is what Oh Young-jin writing for the Korea Times says people in South Korea are speculating about:

A look at the participants in the National Security Office meeting presided over by Chung Eui-yong, Moon’s top security aide, does not reveal these elements in play before the GSOMIA decision. But the movers and shakers that led the move were hidden in plain sight, as it was more the action of working-level presidential aides and others outside Cheong Wa Dae that have inherited Roh’s zeitgeist. 

Some argue openly ― and more wonder ― whether the GSOMIA decision is aimed at diverting public attention from the scandal involving the justice minister-to-be regarding a mushrooming body of allegations of unethical, if not illegal, activities involving his daughter, himself and other family members. The revelations are shocking, dumb-founding and despicable to the point that his nomination deserves an immediate withdrawal. 

But speculation appears quite plausible that Moon ditched the military pact to save his apostle, whom he depends on solely to achieve one of his key presidential agenda items ― reforming the prosecutors, an influential group notorious for colluding with power at a given time and thereby hindering the development of the nation’s democracy. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the Justice Minister Nominee Cho Kuk is one of President Moon’s closest friends that he wants put in charge of the powerful Justice Ministry. It is ironic that President Moon came to power due to candlelight protests against the supposed corruption of the Park Geun-hye administration and Moon has done the same thing of appointing people with shady backgrounds to important positions in the government. The negative media is worth it because he trusts these people to forcibly advance his agenda.

Giving the media another bright shiny object to follow could have definitely been part of the timing of the GSOMIA calculus, but I feel they were going to withdraw regardless for a variety of reasons.

The Moon administration has decided that domestic politics is more important than national security:

 South Korea consulted with the United States often and adequately on the fate of a bilateral pact with Japan on sharing military intelligence, Cheong Wa Dae said Friday, as Washington has voiced “strong concern” and “disappointment” over Seoul’s decision to discard the key tool for strengthening trilateral security cooperation in Northeast Asia.

“It’s true that the U.S. hoped for the extension of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA),” South Korea’s Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Hyun-chong said in a press briefing.

Thus, he added, it was “natural” for Washington to be disappointed with Seoul’s move, which represents its toughest countermeasure yet against Tokyo’s export curbs.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but what allows the Moon administration to make this decision more easily than it should of, is that they know the U.S. will share with them any pertinent information the Japanese have on North Korea anyway.

This decision allows the Moon administration to show they are “doing something” in response to the trade dispute with Japan, burnish their anti-Japan street cred with the South Korean left, without really giving anything up in return.

It looks like another President Moon recommendation for a governmental position has a shady background:

President Moon Jae-in is facing growing calls to withdraw his nomination of Cho Kuk as justice minister due to a widening scandal involving one of his most trusted aides. 

The allegations of irregularities regarding his daughter’s academic history, in addition to the possible evasion of military service and the dual nationality of his son, who also holds U.S. citizenship, have produced a huge public backlash. A recent poll showed that almost 50 percent of respondents thought Cho was an inappropriate choice for justice minister. 

Even some ruling party lawmakers have started to voice concerns about the impact of the Cho scandal on Moon’s leadership. “The people who supported Moon in the presidential election and our party are more actively raising questions about this issue,” Rep. Park Yong-jin of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said in a radio interview, Wednesday. “If the nominee fails to give an explanation that is convincing to the public, the President will be faced with an inevitable decision.”

In particular, the younger generation of voters who have supported President Moon’s special focus on establishing a fair and just society, are feeling a sense of betrayal and expressing outrage on social media amid their own tough struggle to get into good schools and find stable jobs in the hyper competitive Korean society. Many angry citizens are questioning whether Cho is really the right choice to spearhead Moon’s cherished reform drive to promote transparency and fairness, the “core values” of the Moon administration, in the judiciary.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but Cho’s kids seem like they have the same shadiness following them that critics say is why President Moon is currently hiding his daughter overseas.

#SouthKorea's ruling party's think tank Institute for Democracy published a report stating not reaching an agreement w Japan is advantageous to the party in next year's election.https://t.co/G0yhvRg2ol

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) July 31, 2019

The Chun Doo-hwan may have considered cheating in the 1987 election, but there is no evidence they actually did:

Newly declassified US intelligence reports that were originally submitted during South Korea’s 1987 presidential election campaign have confirmed that – as was widely suspected at the time – the military-backed ruling party considered using “black propaganda and dirty tricks” against the opposition, the South China Morning Post reported.

However, “it is unclear to what extent the ruling camp followed through on its plans to cheat in the election,” the newspaper concluded in its weekend report, saying it had obtained the reports through a Freedom of Information Act filing.

As the election turned out, ruling party candidate Roh Tae-woo, who’d been chosen by dictator Chun Doo-hwan, won handily thanks to a split opposition. He drew 37% of the vote as against 28% and 27% for Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung, respectively. Each of the two Kims had refused to withdraw in favor of the other.

In the end – this reporter covered it – the election was generally viewed as having been honestly conducted. While dirty tricks would not have surprised anyone at the time, evidence that the former generals had employed them failed to materialize in any major way.Newly declassified US intelligence reports that were originally submitted during South Korea’s 1987 presidential election campaign have confirmed that – as was widely suspected at the time – the military-backed ruling party considered using “black propaganda and dirty tricks” against the opposition, the South China Morning Post reported.

However, “it is unclear to what extent the ruling camp followed through on its plans to cheat in the election,” the newspaper concluded in its weekend report, saying it had obtained the reports through a Freedom of Information Act filing.

As the election turned out, ruling party candidate Roh Tae-woo, who’d been chosen by dictator Chun Doo-hwan, won handily thanks to a split opposition. He drew 37% of the vote as against 28% and 27% for Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung, respectively. Each of the two Kims had refused to withdraw in favor of the other.

Asia Times

You can read more at the link.

A political rival to President Moon has survived an attempt to send him to jail:

A Suwon court cleared Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung of all charges of abuse of power and violating election laws on Thursday. 

The Seongnam branch of the Suwon District Court found Lee not guilty on the four charges brought against him. Three were related to spreading false information during election campaigns and one was on abusing of his political power to commit his brother to a mental institution.

Lee, who previously served as mayor of Seongnam and was elected Gyeonggi governor in June last year, was indicted in December. 

Prosecutors accused Lee of using his influence as Seongnam mayor to forcibly institutionalize his now-deceased older brother, Lee Jae-sun, seen to be a political liability, at a mental hospital in the Gyeonggi city in 2012. 

Gov. Lee has also been accused of violating the national election law by making false claims leading up to the local elections last June. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but ROK Heads may remember his wife was also accused of spreading libel against political rivals on Twitter. She was also cleared of defamation charges.

Though Governor Lee had the charges dropped the negative publicity may meet the intent of politically damaging him as a rival to President Moon.

Who would choose this new political police force, & on what criteria? Who would they report to? Could Koreans believe in its objectivity when the courts are being re-packed, & have never applied either rules of evidence or precedents? https://t.co/N8hMKVXDms via @scmpnews

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) May 4, 2019

It looks like the Moon administration is a step closer to further consolidating control of the government and getting additional powers to go after their political enemies. In a rare statement, South Korea’s Prosecutor General came out against the bill:

Highly contentious bills on electoral reform and the establishment of an independent investigation agency were fast-tracked at the National Assembly late Monday by two special parliamentary committees. 

After a week of bitter partisan fighting that, at times, turned physical, the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and three allied parties pushed the bills through two special parliamentary committees on political and judicial reform at around 11 p.m. in spite of vocal opposition by the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP).

In the process, the heads of both committees had to exercise their rights to send bodyguards into the meetings to restore order after LKP lawmakers tried again to physically obstruct votes from taking place. 

The bills included one on electoral reform, which would change the number of single-member districts and proportional representation seats in the legislature, and three on judicial reform, including a proposal to create a new agency to investigate corruption by high-ranking civil servants and another to adjust powers between the police and prosecutors. 

Prosecutor General Moon Moo-il on Wednesday openly voiced his opposition to the judicial reform bills in a rare show of disagreement with policy issues.

“Law enforcement procedures must function in accordance to democratic principles,” Moon said, according to a release by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office. “But the bills that were fast-tracked at the National Assembly currently go against the democratic principle of checks and balances.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but this bill moves indictment powers from prosecutors and moves them to a special unit. If this special unit is staffed with political allies this would allow the Blue House to control who gets indicted and thus why this bill is so controversial.

So does anyone think this bill is intended root out corruption or people that don’t agree with the politics of the Moon administration?:

he ruling Democratic Party (DP) decided Monday to fast-track two bills on establishing a special investigative unit tasked with probing allegations of corruption by high-ranking officials.
Earlier in the day, the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party (BP) proposed a separate bill on limiting the authority of the probe unit and fast-tracking both its bill and a relevant measure proposed by it and three other parties last week.
The National Assembly faces heightened tensions as the DP and three minor parties agreed last week to fast-track four bills linked to electoral reform and the establishment of a unit to investigate alleged corruption by high-ranking government and public officials. (………)

The BP bill calls for setting up a panel to review the appropriateness of charges filed by the probe unit, a tool aimed at preventing it from wielding excessive authority for indictment. Under the four parties’ deal, the unit will be able to indict only judges, prosecutors and high-ranking police officers, an institutional tool that can keep prosecutors in check.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is the largest conservative protest I can remember in quite some time if the 50,000 number is accurate:

The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) took to the streets Saturday to launch an all-out protest against a joint move by ruling and other rival political parties to fast-track key bills, including an electoral reform.
LKP legislators and party members, wearing red T-shirts with the message, “We will fight till the end” written on them, gathered in central Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square for the demonstration.
The LKP put the estimate of attendees at Saturday’s rally at 50,000. 
LKP leader Hwang Kyo-ahn took the podium and made a resounding speech lashing out at the liberal Moon Jae-in government and the ruling Democratic Party (DP) as those who “try to use the fast-track to their own advantage” so as to gain an upper hand in next year’s parliamentary elections. 
“We’re waging a fair struggle so as to derail this barbaric fast-track action,” he said.
LKP floor leader Na Kyung-won also had her turn at the podium, condemning the move as “an act by the leftists that gravely undermines parliamentary democracy and the Constitution.”

“The leftists are trying to wipe out this country’s free democracy. They have humiliated the National Assembly that represents our people,” she shouted. “The electoral (reform) bill is a tool they need to extend their terms in power for as long as they want.”
Four parties, not including the LKP, agreed Monday to a package deal to fast-track bills on electoral reform, the establishment of a special unit to investigate alleged corruption by high-ranking public officials and enhancement of the police’s authority to conduct probes.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but if the 50,000 number is true the conservative protests are getting larger, but I believe that only if they get over 100,000 does it mean that the general South Korean public is turning on the Moon administration.